2025 Schedules

[Falconer]

Messiah announces their schedule and incoming players. https://gomessiah.com/news/2025/5/13/mens-soccer-2025-schedule-and-incoming-class.aspx

[Kuiper]

Messiah announces their schedule and incoming players. https://gomessiah.com/news/2025/5/13/mens-soccer-2025-schedule-and-incoming-class.aspx

Big trip for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to travel to Messiah

[Kuiper]

Dickinson released its 2025 schedule on Instagram, which annoyingly means you have to try to interpret all the athletic logos of its opponents to know who they are playing.  From what I can tell, they've upgraded the strength-of-schedule a bit, adding away games against Virginia Wesleyan, Christopher Newport, and Widener, instead of Rosemont, Goucher, and DeSales.

[jknezek]

Dickinson released its 2025 schedule on Instagram, which annoyingly means you have to try to interpret all the athletic logos of its opponents to know who they are playing.  From what I can tell, they've upgraded the strength-of-schedule a bit, adding away games against Virginia Wesleyan, Christopher Newport, and Widener, instead of Rosemont, Goucher, and DeSales.

That should be good for them. I understand they bring back a lot of the core that made the tournament run last year. Having watched them lose to W&L, I thought they looked tactically limited in that game. Upping the competition will be good preparation, though you'd think just playing in a strong CC should generally be enough.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Dickinson released its 2025 schedule on Instagram, which annoyingly means you have to try to interpret all the athletic logos of its opponents to know who they are playing.  From what I can tell, they've upgraded the strength-of-schedule a bit, adding away games against Virginia Wesleyan, Christopher Newport, and Widener, instead of Rosemont, Goucher, and DeSales.

That should be good for them. I understand they bring back a lot of the core that made the tournament run last year. Having watched them lose to W&L, I thought they looked tactically limited in that game. Upping the competition will be good preparation, though you'd think just playing in a strong CC should generally be enough.

Perhaps. However, they have two very good goal scorers, Saul Iwowo (senior 16 goals, 9 assists) and Ethan Jarden (senior, 13 g, 8 assists). https://dickinsonathletics.com/news/2024/12/6/mens-soccer-devils-dynamic-duo-of-iwowo-and-jarden-named-all-american.aspx

Assuming that they can improve their defense, they could have an excellent chance to improve on last year.

Last non conf. game is against Marymount which was decent team last which lost in its conf. championship. The other is Albright in Reading.  Lebanon Valley is another one.

[Hopkins92]

Yeah, the Red Devils are going to be a very tough out this year. Those two guys can turn a game on its head in 10 seconds.

[jknezek]

That's what I was referring to by tactically limited. They are very good, but all they were doing was desperately trying to feed those two. Other than that, they didn't seem to have much else to try.

I get it, you ride your stars, especially that point of the season. But if the other team closes down those lanes, you need something else. I just didn't see it, but that was also the only Red Devil game I watched so not exactly a legitimate sample.

[Kuiper]

Lycoming

They add away games at Neumann and Widener and home game against Ursinus (replacing Baldwin Wallace, Penn State Behrend, Rutgers Newark, Penn State Harrisburg and Case Western) to a schedule with returning opponents John Carroll and Messiah away and Gettysburg at home.

Wartburg

Adds Bethel (MN), Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and North Central and subtracts Saint Johns, St. Scholastica, and North Park, which seems like an upgrade overall. 

[Kuiper]

Time to take a look at the USA South

LaGrange

The aren't many years when you can say that a D3 school opens its season in Florida, which is a D3 desert.  LaGrange is opening at Pensacola Christian College, which is an NCCAA school that does play some D3 schools typically, including Belhaven, Huntington, and Bob Jones (now in the provisional pipeline).  Probably the biggest additions to the schedule are Oglethorpe at home and @Berea as part of a return trip to Kentucky to play Asbury.

Pfeiffer

Playing Carolina University (a strong NAIA/NCCAA team) twice (home and away) this season instead of Johnson & Wales (NC), Ferrum, and Wooster after not playing Carolina at all in the last two years. Wonder if that's because they are trying to save money or if this is being pushed from Carolina's side.

Methodist

Hosting Roanoke and Berry early in September.  Playing D1 Campbell in the middle of conference play

[Kuiper]

St. John Fisher

Opens on the road at Rutgers Camden, which is interesting because I don't think St. John Fisher has traveled that far out of upstate NY for non-conference games in recent years.  I guess it replaces Trinity (CT) from last season, which was their last out of state trip.  No game v. Oswego this season as they just go with one less non-conference game in their quest to get back to the NCAA tournament.

[Kuiper]

Lebanon Valley

Lebanon Valley has loaded up their non-conference schedule with Centennial Conference opponents in recent years and this schedule does not disappoint.  They aren't playing Washington College or Franklin & Marshall this year, but instead add games at Johns Hopkins and at Dickinson, plus they are hosting Gettysburg and Muhlenberg.

Anna Maria

Pretty tough additions to their non-conference schedule in @WPI, @DI Holy Cross, @Wheaton (MA), and @Brandeis.  Plus, they host Amherst, although the Anna Maria website identifies that as a conference game, so maybe the GNAC has lured the Mammoths away from the NESCAC with an outrageous FloSports contract 

[jknezek]

It wasn't posted with the original schedule, but W&L filled out their 9/20 open date with a home game against Regent University who is reclassifying from NCCAA. They are in their first provisional year and went 5-7-1 last year in an exploratory year that featured a 3-3-1 record against DIII teams and a 5-7-1 record overall. They went 0-3 against ODAC teams, Va Wes, Guilford and R-MC, but beat Greensboro, Gallaudet, and Mary Baldwin with a tie against NC Wes.

No schedule is yet posted for this year, but I believe they are affiliating with the C2C conference, so they have to find a lot of games.

[Kuiper]

It wasn't posted with the original schedule, but W&L filled out their 9/20 open date with a home game against Regent University who is reclassifying from NCCAA. They are in their first provisional year and went 5-7-1 last year in an exploratory year that featured a 3-3-1 record against DIII teams and a 5-7-1 record overall. They went 0-3 against ODAC teams, Va Wes, Guilford and R-MC, but beat Greensboro, Gallaudet, and Mary Baldwin with a tie against NC Wes.

No schedule is yet posted for this year, but I believe they are affiliating with the C2C conference, so they have to find a lot of games.

Mary Washington, also a member of the C2C, released its schedule and it's playing Regent on Sept 5.  I wouldn't be surprised if they show up on Christopher Newport's schedule as well, as it was Regent's sponsoring institution and a fellow member of the C2C.  They probably will also be on Salisbury's and Warren Wilson's schedules, both of which are also in the C2C.  The reality of the C2C is that with the departure of the Wisconsin schools, it has basically become a Southeastern conference + UC Santa Cruz, so Regent actually could get at least 4 "conference" games and possibly more if they play any of those teams twice a season in a home and away series.

[Kuiper]

SUNY Purchase

After a 1-15 season last year, it's not surprising that Purchase sought out more opponents in its league, so-to-speak. It dropped NYU (which beat them 7-0 to open last season) and added John Jay, Pratt, and York

Elizabethtown

Replaces Alfred and Washington College with an opening game @Ithaca and then home v. Penn State Berks and then replaces Lebanon Valley (who it lost to 6-0 last season) with Hood.  The Franklin & Marshall and Messiah games back-to-back, with both being away, sounds like a killer.

Fitchburg State

Replaces Vt. St. Castelton with Rivier and Dean, Lesley, and Curry, with New England College, Emmanuel (MA) and Keene State.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Lebanon Valley

Lebanon Valley has loaded up their non-conference schedule with Centennial Conference opponents in recent years and this schedule does not disappoint.  They aren't playing Washington College or Franklin & Marshall this year, but instead add games at Johns Hopkins and at Dickinson, plus they are hosting Gettysburg and Muhlenberg.

Don't know who dropped whom, but not playing F&M after many years in a row. They are pretty close to each other and played each other for 10 straight years and 37 times overall starting in 1974. Hopefully LVC will have a better grass field.