2025 Schedules

[Kuiper]

Trinity (CT)

After a 2-13 season last year, including an 0-10 record in the NESCAC, and an 8-32-8 record as Trinity's head coach Methembe Ndlovu is entering his 4th season in the program, the Bantams are likely desperate to get some wins, if for nothing else so Ndlovu can buy some patience with the AD and with recruits.  NESCAC's schedule and limited non-conference opportunities make that difficult though.  This year, they drop Western Connecticut and St. John's Fisher (one of their two wins last season) and add University of Saint Joseph (CT) (which qualified for the NCAAs and lost to Wesleyan 2-0 in the first round) and Eastern Connecticut State (which tied Wesleyan 0-0 last season, but otherwise didn't have a great season).  Trinity better hope that Patrick Ageymang's success with the USMNT hasn't led to immediate recruiting gains for Eastern Conn. St. or Trinity's record may end up even worse this year.  Other bottom half NESCAC schools probably hope that doesn't happen either because they don't have as much wiggle room for dropping bad wins under the NPI given their non-conference schedules and middling records against NESCAC teams.

[B Teamer]

Montclair State

Starts with a trip to TN to open with Sewanee and Rhodes. Has seven out of conference home games after that.

[Kuiper]

Stevens

After losing to Amherst in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament the last two seasons (in OT in 2023 and PKs in 2024) and to Chicago in OT of the Final Four in 2022, Stevens has to feel like it is on the precipice of breaking through.  This year, they drop Ohio Wesleyan, Chapman, Milwaukee School of Engineering and Rochester and replace them with William Paterson, Swarthmore, Manhattanville, and NYU. They host Denison in the opener for both teams, which should be a stern test for the two sides that tied 0-0 in Granville, Ohio last year. Their biggest tests, however, may not be how they play against the so-called "name" schools, but whether they can stay consistent and handle some of the local sides that are gunning for them.  Last season, they lost to SUNY New Paltz 1-0, tied Kean 0-0, and lost to Alvernia 2-0.  They play all three again this season.  How they do against those teams might be the best gauge for whether they are ready to take the next step.

Linfield

Linfield was 3-15-2 last season and two of its wins were against winless Lewis & Clark (the third was against a weak local NAIA side).  In those 20 games, they scored 21 goals and conceded 51.  In 2023, they weren't much better, finishing 5-12-3.  Despite their woes, they have traveled a decent amount in recent years.  Two years ago, they went to Southern California and played CalTech, La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer. Last season, they went to Virginia and played Bridgewater and Eastern Mennonite.  Unfortunately, they lost all of those games.  This year, they travel again, but they are playing even tougher opponents - Macalester and Augsburg - on the opening weekend of the season.  Unless Linfield has improved significantly or catch their Minnesota opponents unprepared, it should be more of the same this season.  At least they play Lewis & Clark twice again this season in conference.

[Kuiper]

UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz is probably one of the most deserted of the D3 island schools in the country.  I think the closest D3 school is Cal Lutheran, which is about 315 miles or 5-6 hours away on a good day.  They are in the Coast-to-Coast conference, but every other member is in Maryland, Virginia, or North Carolina, so they only play a conference tournament.  While the other C2C schools tend to play each other (sometimes in a home-and-away series) in what are technically non-conference games, UC Santa Cruz is for all intents and purposes an independent.  Most years, that means it fills its schedule by traveling south to play SCIAC opponents, trying to get a NWC school or two to play them, and filling out its schedule with more local DII or NAIA opponents.  This year, however, they play the most D3 opponents that I have seen them schedule - 13.  They start with an intriguing preseason scrimmage against Santa Clara and then they open the season with four straight NWC opponents (Willamette and Pacific at home and Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran away) and three SCIAC opponents (Caltech at home and Redlands and Whittier away).  They then travel to Texas to play SAA opponents Trinity and Southwestern, host Carleton from the MIAC in a somewhat surprising one-off match and then travel to SoCal again to play La Verne and Cal Lutheran from the SCIAC.  Their first non-D3 opponent is Oct. 15 and UC Merced (D2), before they travel back to SoCal for a midweek game with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  A lot of travel and teams from a lot of different parts of the country, but if they do well and their opponents do well, including in the C2C tourney against the likes of Mary Washington and Christopher Newport, this schedule might allow them to accumulate enough strength-of-schedule points to get an NCAA bid even if they don't win the conference tourney.  Of course, to do so they will have to do a little better, record-wise, than last season when they only suffered 2 losses, but also only had 6 wins because they had a whopping 9 ties.