University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s soccer head coach Gavin McKinney will showcase his first recruiting class and first schedule as he leads the Mocs into his second season.
Ten home games including a visit from SEC’s Alabama highlight the 2016 slate and the Mocs will host five Southern Conference foes in their longest homestand of the year.
“We like the schedule,” McKinney said. “It’s competitive and well balanced and we have some tough teams out of conference.”
UTC opens its 18-game slate at Finley Stadium with a pair of non-conference matchups against Kennesaw State on Friday, August 19 followed Alabama A&M the following Sunday at UTC’s annual “Meet the Mocs”.
All of the Mocs’ teams will be on hand at the Chattanooga Market in the First Tennessee Pavilion signing autographs and talking with the fans.
The Crimson Tide will be in Chattanooga the following Sunday. This will be the third time in two years the Mocs have taken on an SEC team and the first time UTC has hosted one since the 13th-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols made an appearance in the Scenic City in 2008. UTC is 1-4 against Alabama with its lone win coming in 2004 on the road.
In September, the Mocs will host instate foe Tennessee-Martin on September 9 with Radford making the trip two days later. The non-conference road schedule will feature Murray State (8/26), Morehead State (9/4), Eastern Kentucky (9/16) and Austin Peay (9/18).
“We want to test ourselves in our non-conference schedule. The SoCon is extremely competitive,” McKinney said. “We’ve got to prepare ourselves and we think playing Alabama will be a great game for the rest of the season.”
Chattanooga opens Southern Conference action on the road at Furman (9/23) and Wofford (9/25) before returning home for five straight matchups.
The Citadel will be the Mocs’ SoCon home-opener on September 30 followed by Mercer (10/2), Samford (10/9), ETSU (10/14) and Western Carolina on October 16. Chattanooga’s two final league matches will be on the road at VMI on October 21 and UNCG in the finale on October 23.
“The long homestand will be good for us,” McKinney said. “The constant grind of travel can take a lot out of you and the comfort factor of being at home and playing in front of our fans will be good for us.”
The Southern Conference Tournament first two rounds will take place at home sites beginning Wednesday October 26 at the higher seeded home field. The quarterfinals will take place October 29 and 30, also at the higher seed site. The semifinals and finals will be hosted by ETSU November 4 and 6 in Johnson City, Tenn.
Before regular season play even gets started, the Mocs will put themselves to the test with a pair of preseason scrimmages against instate foes Tennessee Tech and Belmont.
“Scrimmages are really important,” McKinney said. “We have a huge group of new players coming in and this will give us a chance to for a look, an opportunity to try new things and players at new positions.
“Tennessee Tech made it to the semifinals of their conference tournament and Belmont was a vey competitive game for us last year in the preseason.”
The Mocs expect to return about 15 players from the 2015 roster and will add almost 15 more for the 2016 season.
“We’re excited to see how the incoming players blend with the returners,” McKinney said. “The veterans have worked extremely hard in the time we’ve been here and we are interested to see how the young ones do in this environment.
“We feel we’ll be much improved. We’ll find out just how much when August rolls around.”