ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's soccer team has released their schedule for the upcoming 2022 season.
The Thunder will take the pitch 17 times during the 2022 season with nine coming on the road and eight on their home fields. During the non-conference portion of the season road trips include heading to Franklin College, Centre College, Augustana College, Indiana University and Ohio Wesleyan University.
Highlighting the group is the team's first match against a Division I opponent when they travel to face the Hoosiers on Sept. 14. Centre is perhaps the most difficult Division III team on the schedule based on last year's results. They made it to the third round of the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship tournament, the deepest run of any team the Thunder will face.
Trine will host Hanover College, Wittenberg University, Denison University and Asbury University as non-conference opponents. Both Hanover and Wittenberg made appearances in last year's championship tournament, both exiting in the opening game. Last season Hanover battled the Thunder to a 2-2 tie and Denison fell to the team 3-2.
Trine opens the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) by heading to Saint Mary's College on Sept. 28. All told they have four road contests during the conference season including Calvin University, Alma College and Albion College all during the month of October. Calvin highlights the group finishing last year as regular season champions and defeating Trine during the regular season 3-2.
At home the team will see Hope College, Adrian College, Kalamazoo College and Olivet College as their MIAA foes. Hope and Kalamazoo both defeated Trine during the regular season and were joined by Adrian in the in filling out the MIAA Tournament pool. The contest against Hope will be a rematch of the 2022 MIAA Tournament Championship game when the Flying Dutch got the best of the Thunder. The game is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 1 which is Trine University's homecoming.
Trine will finish the season on Shive Field in Zollner Stadium for their senior night game against Olivet College on Wednesday Oct. 26 at 7:15 p.m.
The Thunder shattered records during a season of firsts for the program during the 2021 campaign. The team finished the season by reaching their first ever MIAA Tournament final before receiving their first berth in the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship tournament.
Trine started the season with a 12-game unbeaten streak, the longest in the program's NCAA history, and with just their tenth game of the year they set a new NCAA program record for most wins in a season.
In addition to historic win totals the team broke four single season records. Offensively the team shattered previous points and goals records by recording 49 goals and 126 points during the year. Then defensively the team came in with a 0.89 goals-against average and posted 12 shutouts.