BOONE, N.C. – Three conference home games and visits from Louisville and Duke to Appalachian State's newly renovated Brandon and Erica Adcock Field highlight the Mountaineers' 2018 field hockey schedule, head coach
Meghan Dawson announced Friday.
The Mountaineers, who finished fourth in their first season in the Mid-American Conference last year, will face five teams who advanced to the 2017 NCAA Tournament – North Carolina (Sept. 11 in Chapel Hill, N.C.), Louisville (Sept. 23 in Boone), Duke (Sept. 30 in Boone), Wake Forest (Oct. 7 in Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Miami (Oct. 20 in Oxford, Ohio). Duke, UNC, Louisville and Wake Forest all ranked among the top 12 teams in the nation at the end of last season.
Just in time to celebrate 50 Years of Women's Sports at Appalachian, Adcock Field is receiving an upgrade this offseason with a new fieldhouse that includes home and visitor locker rooms, team lounges, coaches' locker room, officials room and dedicated entries for the Mountaineers and visitors. For enhanced fan experience on gamedays, public restrooms are being added.
The fieldhouse will be ready in August, while the official ribbon cutting ceremony is slated for Sunday, Sept. 23, when App State welcomes Louisville for an 11 a.m. game. That weekend will feature a celebration across all Mountaineer sports recognizing the first 50 years of women's sports at Appalachian. Field hockey was the first varsity sport for women when the team began playing in 1968.
"We're excited for the upcoming season and the opportunity to host teams and showcase our new locker room building," Dawson said. "There will be a lot of good competition this fall, and I'm looking forward to seeing our girls come together and compete."
App State will open the campaign with four straight home games against Towson (Aug. 24), Georgetown (Aug. 26), LIU Brooklyn (Aug. 31) and Rider (Sept. 2) before a four-game road trip that includes stops at Davidson (Sept. 7), James Madison (Sept. 9), UNC and Ohio (Sept. 15).
The MAC tournament is slated for Nov. 2-3 in Oxford, Ohio. App State earned the No. 4 seed in last year's tourney in its first season as a member of the MAC.
App State welcomes back 17 letterwinners and eight starters from last year's squad, including second-leading goal scorer
Ali Williams and goalkeeper
Rachel Gaines, who is a member of the U.S. Senior National Indoor team.
