2026 Schedules

[Kuiper]

Hamline

Hamline had a decent year last season in the MIAC, only losing 1-0 to Augsburg, St. Olaf, Saint John's and Gustavus Adolphus, and starting out the season going 7-0-1.  It will take something special to break through given the strength of their opposition, but they are laying the foundation for success.  This season, they drop Wisconsin-Platteville (their one non-conference tie), Lakeland, Lawrence and Bethany Lutheran and add St. Norbert, University of Northwestern (MN).  Perhaps they decided that 20 games was overkill and left them dragging late in conference play last season.

[Kuiper]

Johns Hopkins

Hopkins had a down season by their standard last year, finishing 8-7-6, although they did make a run in the Centennial tournament before losing 4-0 to Dickinson in the finals.  Two big road trips to Tennessee and Ohio might have gotten the team off on the wrong foot.  They went 2-2 on the trip, but were winless for the next 6 games after returning.  This season, they mostly stay close to home to start the season.  They drop Rhodes, Sewanee, Kenyon, and Denison, and pick up York and Catholic away and a big set of games on the second weekend hosting Vassar and Washington & Lee.

Grinnell College

This is a school that feels like it should do better than it does, even though it has recently had a string of (barely) winning records.  Strong academics, huge endowment, good merit aid.  I suppose it only appeals to a certain type of student and that type of student is also interested in the strong academic liberal arts colleges in the Northeast.  In any event, they probably need a little push to get over the top, but the schedule changes this year won't do them any favors.  They drop Bethel and Buena Vista and add Wisconsin-River Falls, Gustavus Adolphus (which was on the schedule last season, but ended up being cancelled), and Luther as a new Midwest Conference opponent.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Johns Hopkins

Hopkins had a down season by their standard last year, finishing 8-7-6, although they did make a run in the Centennial tournament before losing 4-0 to Dickinson in the finals.  Two big road trips to Tennessee and Ohio might have gotten the team off on the wrong foot.  They went 2-2 on the trip, but were winless for the next 6 games after returning.  This season, they mostly stay close to home to start the season.  They drop Rhodes, Sewanee, Kenyon, and Denison, and pick up York and Catholic away and a big set of games on the second weekend hosting Vassar and Washington & Lee.

True. I really think the first two Hop games (York and Catholic) are scrimmages as they are before Labor Day weekend and the schedule has 19 games. I think the NCAA allows teams to begin scheduling competitive games on Aug. 28.

Based on the schedule, I think Hop could go at least 5-1 before its Cent. Conf. schedule. That will be great.

[Kuiper]

Johns Hopkins

Hopkins had a down season by their standard last year, finishing 8-7-6, although they did make a run in the Centennial tournament before losing 4-0 to Dickinson in the finals.  Two big road trips to Tennessee and Ohio might have gotten the team off on the wrong foot.  They went 2-2 on the trip, but were winless for the next 6 games after returning.  This season, they mostly stay close to home to start the season.  They drop Rhodes, Sewanee, Kenyon, and Denison, and pick up York and Catholic away and a big set of games on the second weekend hosting Vassar and Washington & Lee.

True. I really think the first two Hop games (York and Catholic) are scrimmages as they are before Labor Day weekend and the schedule has 19 games. I think the NCAA allows teams to begin scheduling competitive games on Aug. 28.

Based on the schedule, I think Hop could go at least 5-1 before its Cent. Conf. schedule. That will be great.

You are correct.  My mistake.  I read that schedule too quickly.  I think I automatically assumed York and Catholic were part of the schedule partly because they were dropping the first four opponents from last season and didn't list any scrimmages in 2025.  They replace them with Shenandoah, Vassar and W&L and drop from 18 games to 17 games this season.

[Kuiper]

Beloit

Adds Dominican, North Central, Dubuque, Concordia Chicago, and Lakeland and drops Earlham, Anderson, St. Francis (ILL), Rockford, Wisconsin Eau Claire

[Kuiper]

Alma

I don't normally see a team playing its first four regular season games against non-NCAA D3 opponents and 8 out of 11 non-conference opponents are not NCAA D3 teams.  I guess they are are considered a remote location, since they only have one NCAA D3 non-conference opponents willing to travel to Alma and they have to go to Indiana to get 2 of their 3 D3 non-conference foes.  At least they don't play Calvin twice this season.

Wisconsin-Stevens Point

In only the second year of its program's existence, Wisconsin-Stevens Point finished 13-4-4, losing in the WIAC finals 1-0 to Eau-Claire to miss out on the WIAC automatic bid.  Its best non-conference win was probably 1-0 over Edgewood last season and it looks like they've tried to increase their strength-of-schedule a little this season to give them a chance if they don't win the WIAC again this season.  They swap out Edgewood for Gustavus Adolphus and MSOE, but otherwise it's pretty similar to last season.

[Kuiper]

Wisconsin-Whitewater

Wisconsin-Whitewater has become a powerhouse, winning the WIAC last season and losing on PKs to a tough Wash U team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  With the WIAC small and only playing each other once, that means they have 5 conference games, plus the tournament, leaving plenty of room for a strong non-conference schedule.  Last year, their three loses were to Augsburg, North Park, and Loras.  This year, they replace Augsburg with Macalester, while continuing to play North Park, Loras, Lake Forest, and Wartburg.

Farmingdale State

Farmingdale is a decent Skyline team that doesn't shy away from playing stronger non-conference opponents even though it drags down the team's overall record.  This year, they add Western Connecticut in place of Haverford and CCNY in place of Lehman.

[Kuiper]

Marietta

Marietta is the odd case of a team who had a striker (Parker Bolin) on the team who scored 19 goals, but the team still went 5-12-2 and only scored 32 goals all season.  Most DIII teams can develop hard-nosed defenders and midfielders, and even get some technical players, but can never pick up a striker like that.  Bolin was listed as a senior transfer who played two years at Notre Dame College (DII) and then, after Notre Dame closed, transferred to Mercyhurst (DII), where he did not play at all, before transferring to Marietta last season.  If he is done, then they are back to square one.  If not, however, then if they can build any semblance of a defense and other pieces of that team, they could make some strides this season.  This year, they open hosting Geneva, then travel to Maryville to play two opponents TBD.  After playing Franciscan and Mount St. Joseph's, they play a murderer's row of NCAC foes - Kenyon, John Carroll, Denison, and Ohio Wesleyan - before OAC play. 

[Kuiper]

Curry

Opens at home against Mass-Dartmouth again, where they hope to avoid the 5-1 shellacking they took away last season in the opener.  They add Springfield, which should be a tough game, especially with Endicott three days later.

Gustavus Adolphus

The Gusties have a sneaky tough schedule to start the season.  After starting against Nebraska Wesleyan, they play Edgewood, Chicago, UW-Superior, Luther, and Lake Forest before opening MIAC play at Saint John's.

[Kuiper]

University of Saint Joseph (CT)

Replaces Wheaton (MA) (a game it lost 9-1 last season) with Hartford, but otherwise plays the same nonconference schedule, which means it has a decent chance to return to the NCAA tournament if it can find a way to replace Emmanuel Ofori (9g/5a) up top.

Illinois Wesleyan

They replace Spalding, Centre, Kalamazoo, Eureka, and Lake Forest with Rockford and Monmouth, reducing their overall nonconference games by three.  14 games total is pretty light, so maybe they plan to add more games to the schedule.  Otherwise, a drop in games and quality of opponent sounds like a team that is worried about losing three starting senior defenders and their starting GK.

[Kuiper]

Brevard

Brevard opens with two tournaments.  It plays the Emory tournament on opening weekend against Oglethorpe and Emory and then it plays the Centre tournament on the second weekend against Centre and Spalding.  It's a good way for a school like Brevard to get games since it is pretty far removed over to the west of the the other schools in its conference.  I'm sort of surprised that it isn't playing Warren Wilson at all, though, after playing them twice last season.  I think they are the closest D3 school to Brevard.  They do pick up a game against Johnson & Wales Charlotte.

Whitworth

What immediately caught my eye is that Whitworth is playing Azusa Pacific in an exhibition game on Aug. 27th.  You don't normally see a team from Southern California travel up to Spokane, Washington to play exhibition games.  Since Azusa Pacific is a provisional D3 member this season after reclassifying from DII, though, all games are effectively exhibition games and this may be a good way for it to get some decent D3 games in and both show its commitment to any returning players and to start getting its name out there in a community that might have some kids interested in a Christian education in a warmer climate (it wasn't lost on me that Azusa Pacific also chose to travel to one of the other D3 schools on the West Coast with a formal church affiliation and Christian mission). 

For Whitworth, it's also the beginning of a pretty ambitious non-conference schedule.  They open the season traveling to Colorado Springs to play Austin College and Colorado College (I'm assuming that a fourth team will be at that event so Austin College, a fellow SCAC member, won't play Colorado College before conference play).  The next weekend, they host Mary Hardin-Baylor, Whitman, and UC Santa Cruz, where Whitworth will play Mary Hardin-Baylor and UC Santa Cruz.  That's a nice mix of Region X opponents.  I love that Colorado College has started hosting their pre-conference event and that Whitworth has organized one of its own similar to the Trinity-Southwestern event where they can invite multiple teams to the area.

[Kuiper]

Averett

Only nonconference change is to add Mary Baldwin in place of NC Wesleyan.  I was mostly curious about the scrimmage against Combine Academy.  I looked them up and they are an international boarding school in Charlotte that also has a post-graduate program.  The soccer roster looks like a United Nations of countries represented.

Lake Forest

Lake Forest was 19-2 last season, which was the best record in program history, and won its 4th MWC title in a row.  It was also the fourth straight season in which the team was beaten pretty handily in the first round of the NCAA tournament despite having some strong victories in non-conference play including beating Calvin 3-0.  The question is if they can find a way to get beyond a first round tourney exit.  Not sure if this schedule will do it, but it does have some games that should challenge them.  They take a trip to the Pacific Northwest in early September to play Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound.  They also host Gustavus Adolphus and travel to Luther, which beat them 4-1 in the NCAA tournament last season.