Soccer Unveils 2014 Schedule

LAFAYETTE, La. – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns soccer team released their 2014 schedule Tuesday, featuring 10 home matches at the Ragin' Cajuns Soccer/Track Facility on the 19-match slate.
 
"Our schedule, overall, is a good, challenging schedule," said head coach Scot Wieland. "A lot of it (success) relies on how well you come out of the box. Last year, we were young with a lot of new players. This year, we're also young, but we have a lot of returning players with experience. Hopefully, it won't take us that long to get comfortable and to eliminate a lot of the rookie mistakes. There will be growing pains, just like any year, but it's a schedule that we can do really good with if we come out strong."
 
Coming off its best season in program history, which included an 8-7-3 season record and a 5-2-1 mark in Sun Belt Conference play, Wieland's squad returns 17 letterwinners including all-conference selections Grace Howell-Harries, Yazmin Montoya and Annika Schmidt.
 
"Overall, we're still young, but our level of experience now is totally different than last year," Wieland said. "We return a lot of starters who are sophomores and have a lot of game experience. We've got great leaders this year led by senior Grace Howell-Harries. It's a good group ... I'm excited and 2014, here we come."
 
Louisiana was dominant at home in 2013, outscoring opponents 27-13, and posting a 6-3-3 record for the second-most home wins in program history behind the 8-2 mark during the 2010 season.
 
"You always want to protect your home ... protect the house," Wieland said. "That's obviously very important. (Opposing) teams need to be afraid of coming into your home, because we're going to play hard."
 
The Ragin' Cajuns begin their season Aug. 15 at home with an exhibition match against Southern Miss at 7 p.m. Following their preseason warm-up, Louisiana begins its non-conference schedule on the road with a season opener against Sam Houston State (8/22) before taking on Southeastern Louisiana (8/24) in Hammond.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns first take the home pitch on Aug. 29 with a 7 p.m. contest against McNeese State. The team then heads east for matches with Ole Miss (8/31) and Nicholls State (9/5) before a home match against Texas Southern on Sept. 7.
 
After facing Louisiana Tech (9/12) in Ruston, the Ragin' Cajuns begin a season-long, five-match homestand on Sept. 14 with contests against Lamar, Houston (9/19), Mississippi Valley State (9/21) and conference opponents Georgia State (9/26) and Georgia Southern (9/28).
 
The Ragin' Cajuns begin the month of October with a road trip to Alabama to face SBC opponents Troy (10/3) and South Alabama (10/5) before hosting Arkansas foes UALR on Oct. 10 and Arkansas State on Oct. 12.
 
Louisiana makes its final regular season road trip with contests against Appalachian State (10/17) and Texas State (10/19) before its Senior Day celebration against ULM on Oct. 26.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns travel back to Alabama for the Sun Belt Conference Championships, which are slated for Nov. 5-9 at South Alabama's The Cage in Mobile.
 
"The (Sun Belt) conference is always evolving and it's going to be stronger again with the additions of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern," Wieland said. "It'll be challenging, but we're excited about it and expect to compete for the conference championship."
 
For more information on Ragin' Cajuns Soccer, fans can visit the team's Facebook page (/ULRaginCajunsSoccer) or follow them on Twitter (@CajunsSoccer).
 
 
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