Cardinals will host a challenging, nine-game regular season home schedule at Cardinal Park

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jun 14, 2010 – The University of Louisville women’s soccer program released its 2010 schedule, which includes six games against teams that advanced to last year’s NCAA Tournament and nine regular season home games at Cardinal Park.

"The 2010 schedule features a number of great non-conference matches, many of them at home in front of our faithful Cardinal Park fans, and those games will certainly help prepare us for the rigors of playing in the BIG EAST Conference,” said Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. “The BIG EAST had seven teams make the NCAA Tournament last year, second most of any conference in the country, and we once again look forward to the challenge of competing at the highest levels of women's college soccer."

Louisville will open its 2010 season with an exhibition game at Dayton on Aug. 10, before hosting Tennessee in an exhibition game at Cardinal Park on Saturday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. ET. U of L will open the regular season at Cardinal Park on Aug. 20 at 7 p.m., against Eastern Kentucky.

The Cardinals will then travel to Columbia, S.C., for the Gamecock Courtyard Cup, where they will face host South Carolina, which advanced to the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA Tournament, on Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m. Louisville will close the event on Aug. 29 against Bucknell at noon.

U of L will return home to host Toledo on Sept. 3 at 7 p.m., before taking on in-state rival Kentucky on Sept. 9 at 7 p.m., at Cardinal Park. After road game at Saint Louis on Sept. 12, the Cardinals will open BIG EAST Conference action Sept. 16 at 7 p.m., at Cardinal Park against Cincinnati.

Following its final non-conference game of the regular season on Sept. 19 at Illinois, Louisville will travel to Chicago for a BIG EAST road game at DePaul on Sept. 24. The Cardinals will then return home for five straight at Cardinal Park, starting with a Sept. 26 showdown with Notre Dame, an NCAA participant in 2009, at 1 p.m.

Louisville will welcome the month of October with a home game against Pittsburgh on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m., while West Virginia, a 2009 NCAA squad, will visit Cardinal Park on Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. The Cardinals’ final home weekend will begin on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m., against Villanova, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year, while the regular season home finale at Cardinal Park is set for Oct. 10 at 1 p.m., against Georgetown. The Cardinals will close the regular season with four straight road games against USF (Oct. 15), 2009 NCAA team Marquette (Oct. 17), Seton Hall (Oct. 22) and 2009 NCAA participant Rutgers (Oct. 24).

The 2010 BIG EAST Championship will begin with first round games (Oct. 28) and quarterfinal games (Oct. 31) at campus sites, while the semifinals and final are set for Nov. 5-7 in Piscataway, N.J. The 2010 NCAA Championship will begin on Nov. 12 at campus sites, with the national champion set to be crowned on Dec. 5 in Cary, N.C.