Men?s Soccer Announces 2014 Schedule
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Eleven games against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago, nine televised matches on the Pac-12 Networks and an early September trip to America’s Dairyland to match up with Milwaukee and Marquette highlight the 2014 Oregon State men's soccer schedule as announced by head coach Steve Simmons on Tuesday.
The Beavers will begin their regular season at home on Friday, Aug. 29 against Evansville in the first game of the Nike Portland Invitational. OSU will also play host to Central Florida on Sunday, August 31 to wrap up the tournament. Both Evansville and UCF will also travel to the Rose City for games at UP as part of the event. It will be Oregon State’s first-ever meeting with both sides and the match against the Golden Knights will be the first of nine for OSU on the Pac-12 Networks, one more than it had in 2013.
OSU will hit the road for the first time in early September for tilts against Milwaukee (Sept. 5) and Marquette (Sept. 7) at the 40th Panther Invitational. In two of the past three seasons, Oregon State’s featured non-conference road trip has matched the Beavers up with the eventual NCAA National Champion. In 2011, OSU played North Carolina in Chapel Hill and in 2012 the Beavers were in the Midwest to match wits with Indiana. Last season, the Beavers traveled to Michigan State to play the Spartans, which came within one game of advancing to the 2013 College Cup.
Of this year’s opponents, the Panthers were the Horizon League Champions, posted a 15-3-2 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The two sides met at the Gonzaga Soccer Classic in Spokane in 2005 and played to a 1-1 draw in their only previous meeting. Marquette went 13-6-2 last year, won both the BIG EAST regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship.
Oregon State returns home on Friday, Sept. 12 to host its annual Hensor/Zaher Nike Classic, a tournament held since 2004 that honors student-athletes Stephen Hensor and Joe Zaher who tragically died in 2002. The Beavers open that weekend by welcoming Siena to Corvallis and wrap up with Duquesne on Sunday, Sept. 14. OSU is 19-7-4 all-time in the event honoring Hensor and Zaher.
The following week, OSU will remain at home to host matches against Portland (Sept. 18) and Northwest Christian (Sept. 22). The two local rivals, the Beavers and Pilots, met in 13 of the 14 seasons between 1989 and 2003, but have only taken the field twice since, in the first game of OSU’s 2011 campaign in Corvallis and last Sept. 19 in Portland.
The Beavers conclude the non-conference portion of their schedule at Seattle on Friday, Sept. 26. OSU is 6-1-0 all-time against the Redhawks, which claimed both the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles in their first year in the league in 2013 to advance to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship. The two squads met in Corvallis last Sept. 13 and OSU came away with a 2-1 victory in overtime.
Eight of Oregon State’s 10 league contests will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Conference play begins for the Orange & Black with three straight home matches against NCAA Tournament sides. The Beavers start their league slate on Friday, Oct. 3 in Corvallis against Stanford and host a televised match with California on Sunday, Oct. 5. Washington comes to town on Sunday, Oct. 12 to conclude the opening Pac-12 homestand in another match on the Networks.
Oregon State will play four straight against the Southern California schools, first at San Diego State on Friday, Oct. 17 and next at UCLA on Sunday, Oct. 19. Beginning with the match against the Bruins, each of OSU’s final six games will be carried on the Pac-12 Networks.
The two will make a return trip to Paul Lorenz Field for TV tilts the next weekend (Oct. 23; SDSU and Oct. 26; UCLA) before the Beavers conclude the regular season on the road. Games at Cal (Nov. 7) and Stanford (Nov. 9) will also be televised on the Networks, along with the Beavers’ final match before postseason play, at Washington on Sunday, Nov. 16.
OSU will also play an exhibition on Friday, Aug. 22 when it hosts Seattle Pacific at Paul Lorenz Field.
