Eight home matches, including five slated for the Valpo Tennis Complex, mark the 2012 spring women’s tennis schedule for Valparaiso University which has been announced by head coach Traci Young.

The Crusaders will open the season on Feb. 3 in Fort Wayne, Ind. with a pair of matches against IPFW and Niagara.  Valpo then returns home for a pair of contests at Homewood-Flossmoor against Kalamazoo and Bradley before opening Horizon League play on Feb. 24 at Milwaukee.

Valpo will play one more match at Homewood-Flossmoor, facing Western Illinois on Feb. 25 before heading to California for the annual spring trip.  Out west the Brown and Gold will face Biola and Point Loma Nazarene during the middle of March.

Upon returning to Northwest Indiana, the Crusaders will host Butler and Wright State to close out March at the Valpo Tennis Complex.  Trips to Green Bay and Detroit open the month of April before Valpo closes out the home schedule with three matches in four days against Wayne State, Youngstown State, and Cleveland State, the last being on April 15.

Following a trip to Indiana Wesleyan, the Crusaders will close out the regular season on April 21 with a match at UIC.

This year’s Horizon League Championships are slated for April 26-28 in Indianapolis, Ind., with the top six teams from the regular season battling for the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.