Murray State University Athletics
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MSU Soccer Set To Defend OVC Title In 2009
7/31/2009 3:45:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Murray State Women's Soccer released its 2009 schedule featuring seven games at Cutchin Field as the Racers try and defend their 2008 Ohio Valley Conference championship.
The Racers begin their campaign Aug. 15 with a road exhibition match against IPFW in Fort Wayne, Ind, before playing at Little Rock against Arkansas-Little Rock.
After a road contest against Vanderbilt Aug. 30, the Racers play at Cutchin Field for the first time in the MSU Racer Classic.
Future OVC member SIU Edwardsville will be joined in the four-team field by Georgia State and Alabama A&M. The Racers will face AAM at 4:30 p.m. on Sep. 4 after SIUE tangles with GSU at 2 p.m. On Sep. 6, MSU takes on SIUE at 2:30 p.m. after GSU plays AAM at noon.
This is the second year MSU has hosted a tournament.
The Racers take on Southern Mississippi Sep. 11 at the UT Martin Puma Invitational and play Missouri-Kansas City in Martin, Tenn. Sep. 13.
The final tune-up for OVC play is the Racers' first trip west to Arizona and Utah.
The Racers play Northern Arizona in Flagstaff Sep. 18 before traveling to Cedar City to face off with Southern Utah Sep. 20.
Murray State begins defense its OVC title Sep. 25 & 27 at Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech.
After a non-league game at IUPUI Sep. 29, the Racers hit the road for UTM Oct. 4 before returning home for a season-long four-game home stand.
MSU will face Southeast Missouri and Eastern Illinois at home Oct. 9 & 11 and Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky Oct. 16 & 18.
The Racers' home stand ends with an Oct. 23 game with Austin Peay.
The final regular season match is Oct. 25 at home against Evansville, before the OVC Tournament begins Nov. 3 at the home field of the league champion.
For the first time, all six OVC Tournament qualifiers will play on the field of the host.
The top two seeds get a bye on the first day with the bottom four seeds playing two matches.
The semifinals and championship will be played Nov. 6 & 8.
The winner of the OVC Tournament gets an automatic spot in the NCAA Tournament with a match date of Nov. 13.
MSU begins fall camp Aug. 6 and play the annual Blue-Gold Scrimmage at Cutchin Field Aug. 8 at 6 p.m.
The Racers have 15 student-athletes returning from the 2008 OVC championship team including eight starters led by OVC Defensive Player of the Year Tara Isbell, the Racers goalkeeper.
MSU won a program record 12 matches in 2008 and won the league regular season title with a 7-1-0 mark.
