Marquette Men’s Soccer Announces The 2022 Schedule

We already had the fall schedules for Marquette volleyball and women’s soccer, so the last big schedule drop was men’s soccer. That got wrapped up on Monday afternoon, as head coach Louis Bennett and the Golden Eagles released their 20 match calendar for 2022.

The highlights of the schedule are the 11 home matches for Marquette, the most that the program has played since 1987. Since Valley Fields opened up in 1993, this will be the most times that the Golden Eagles have played a regular season match in the Valley ever, and that’s pretty neat. MU will open the regular season with four of those home dates right in a row, and six of the first seven will come at you live from Canal Street.

There are no shortage of big tests for Bennett’s squad this season, as they will see five teams that played in the 2021 NCAA tournament, three of which will come in Big East action. In addition to that, the two non-conference foes that made the national championship field last year? Yeah, they both finished the season in the top 10 of the United Soccer Coaches poll.

After an open intra-team scrimmage in early August and a pair of exhibition matches — at home against Northern Illinois and on the road against Loyola-Chicago — Marquette will officially open up the 2022 campaign on Thursday, August 25th against Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane were a #6 seed in the NCAA tournament last year, helped along the way by a 1-0 win over MU, and advanced to the third round with a win over Creighton along the way. That match will be the front half of a men’s and women’s soccer doubleheader in the Valley, and it will take place on the second day of freshman move-in on campus. Match #2 of the year will be three days later when the Golden Eagles tangle with Utah Tech for the first time in program history. You might be more familiar with that school by the name Dixie State, which is how they are currently listed on the MU schedule page. Their name change takes place officially on July 1st of this year, so may as well just go with what it’s going to be in August.

The last two matches of the four game homestand to start the year will be on back-to-back Fridays. First up on September 2nd is South Florida, and they’ll be followed a week later by Michigan. MU and USF last met in Tampa in 2019, so I imagine this is a return bout in a home-and-home series that got thrown off by COVID. Thanks to years and years of Conference USA and Big East meetings, Marquette is just 5-10-1 all time against the Bulls and have not gotten a win since 2004. MU has had better luck against the Wolverines with a 3-1-1 all time series, although they came up short in Ann Arbor in the most recent meeting in 2018.

That brings about the first road match of the season, and it’s not much in the way of travel time. Three days after the Michigan game, Marquette will be out west just a tad to visit Wisconsin. With the exception of the COVID season, Marquette and Wisconsin have played at least once in every season of MU men’s soccer, and the series has been heavily tilted towards the Badgers at 18-31-11. With that said, it’s been 6-4-1 in MU’s favor since 2010, so that’s something.

The last two matches before Big East play starts will be back at Valley Fields with one brand new opponent and one very long time rival. The new face is Yale, who will come to Milwaukee for the first ever meeting between the two sides on September 16th. Four days later, Marquette will host Milwaukee for a rejuvenation of the Milwaukee Cup. Due to COVID, the Milwaukee Cup has not been contested since September of 2019, and Marquette will be looking to gain possession of the Cup for the first time since UWM took it back in 2017.

A road trip to Xavier on Saturday, September 24th, is the Big East opener this season, but that doesn’t mark the end of non-conference play. MU has one final date left on the schedule, and if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve realized it’s a big one. It’s a trip to Saint Louis on September 27th, and the Billikens are coming off a trip to the Elite Eight last season and a #10 ranking in the final USC poll of the year. Years of Conference USA encounters has given this series 29 all-time meetings, but it’s been pretty much all SLU since MU has a record of just 4-23-2 against them. The last meeting came in the COVID spring season, and Zyan Andrade gave MU a 1-0 overtime win in that one.

The Big East home opener will be on September 30th, with Butler providing the opposition. That one has a time of To Be Announced on the ol’ schedule, and I’m not sure what’s up with that other than a volleyball match against UConn at 7pm that night. Two of MU’s final three matches of the season will be at home, including Senior Night against St. John’s on Wednesday, November 2nd.

Here’s the full schedule!