The UC Santa Barbara Women’s Soccer team released its 2023 schedule on Wednesday.
Head Coach Paul Stumpf will enter his 24th season at the helm of the program, guiding the Gauchos through a 19-match slate in the 2023 season.
The Gauchos will open the 2023 regular season at Harder Stadium on Aug. 17 against Loyola Marymount. After a trip to San Jose State on Aug. 20, the Gauchos will return home to take on Westmont at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22 for the annual Community Shield Game.
UCSB will then hit the road for a four-game road trip beginning in the Central Valley as they take on Fresno State on Aug. 24 and Pacific on Aug. 27.
The Gauchos will then travel to the Midwest to take on the University of Nebraska Omaha on Aug. 31 and start September with Power Five opponent Iowa State on Sept. 3.
During the month of September, UCSB will be at home five times, beginning with San Francisco on Sept. 7 for Childhood Cancer Awareness Night.
The Gauchos will follow that matchup as they play host to Idaho on Sept. 10, when they will host an AYSO Banner Parade during halftime.
“One of the great challenges with our conference is we have 10 different opponents who present a few different systems and styles to compete with,” Stumpf said. “Our non-conference schedule is very challenging with games against high-caliber opponents including San Jose State and Nebraska – Omaha, who were NCAA Tournament participants a year ago. The non-conference portion of our schedule will provide the same variety of systems and styles to prepare us for those conference games.”
UCSB then begins Big West action with the Blue-Green Rivalry against Cal Poly on Sept. 14, which will be Hispanic Heritage Night.
The Gauchos will end their four-game home stand with Saint Mary’s on Sept. 17 and will welcome local Faith Groups to Harder Stadium for Faith Night.
The regular season will then finish with nine straight Big West contests, including hosting UC Riverside on Sept. 28 and Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 1 for the Breast Cancer Awareness Kickoff match.
UCSB will travel to take on UC San Diego on Oct. 5 before finishing off their home matches the following weekend. The Gauchos will host CSUN on Oct. 12 and CSU Bakersfield on Oct. for Senior Night and Elementary School Night.
The Big West quarterfinals are scheduled for Oct. 29, the semifinal round for Nov. 2 and the championship on Nov. 5.
The quarterfinal round will be hosted by the higher seed while the semifinals and championship match will be hosted by the regular-season champion and No. 1 overall seed.
This season, UC Santa Barbara Soccer is selling one season ticket for all of the men’s and women’s games, giving fans the chance to catch all of the excitement for both teams in the race for a Big West Championship. These tickets will go on sale Wednesday, July 26.
Noozhawk Sports Writer Diego Sandoval contributed to this story.