BOONE, N.C. — Highlighted by eight home matches, including three in-state foes, Appalachian State University head women's soccer coach Sarah Strickland announced its 2017 fall schedule on Monday.
"We are looking forward to an exciting fall season," Strickland said. "We have created the most competitive non-conference schedule possible to help prepare us to compete for a Sun Belt Championship."
The Mountaineers will begin the season with two home matches in Boone at the Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex as East Tennessee State (Aug. 10) heads up the mountain for a preseason exhibition before High Point (Aug. 18) comes to town for the regular season and home opener.
UNC Greensboro (Sept. 1) and Davidson (Sept. 7) round out the home non-conference opponents.
Moving into Sun Belt Conference play at Ted Mack, Appalachian will host Troy (Sept. 24) and Arkansas State (Sept. 29) before concluding the season at home again with a showdown against ULM (Oct. 20) and Coastal Carolina (Oct. 22).
App State will carry a Road Warriors mentality through the schedule with a challenging road slate. In non-conference play, the Black and Gold have a three-game road trip against Campbell (Aug. 20), Ball State (Aug. 27) and Northern Kentucky (Aug. 29). They then travel on two, one-off matches on the road against Texas Tech on Sept. 3 and then UNC Wilmington on Sept. 9.
To begin conference action, Appalachian will start at defending league tournament champion South Alabama (Sept. 15) before traveling to Georgia State (Sept. 17). The Mountaineers then go on a four-match road trip that begins at Texas State (Oct. 1) and Georgia Southern (Oct. 6) before ending at Little Rock (Oct. 13) and Louisiana (Oct. 15).
Appalachian State is coming off an impressive 2016 season that finished 10-8-2 overall and included an inspiring 4-1 record to end the regular season and claim its second-straight berth into the Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the No. 4 seed.
