Sooners Announce Competitive 2017 Slate

NORMAN — Coming off the best season in program history, the Oklahoma soccer team will look to carry that success into 2017. OU head coach Matt Potter and Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Joe Castiglione announced the Sooners' challenging schedule for the upcoming season on Monday.

The Sooners will play 19 regular season contests, including eight home matches on John Crain Field at the OU Soccer Complex. OU will also host BYU in an exhibition contest on Aug. 11.

"This year's schedule continues the trend of giving our student-athletes the opportunity to play on the biggest of stages and to compete against the best of the best," Potter said. "We have maintained the standard of creating a competitive non-conference schedule to ready for us for the demands of the Big 12. Last year, the RPI ranking acknowledged and rewarded the competitiveness of the type of schedule we look to piece together as we strive to be a top-tier program."

Following their exhibition match, the Sooners will kick off the regular season by welcoming Arizona to Norman on Aug. 18. OU will face in-state foes Oklahoma State and Tulsa at home on Aug. 25 and 27, respectively, and Illinois (Sept. 10) in home non-conference contests. Sooner Sports TV will again broadcast live all of OU's home matches.

"This year's schedule continues the trend of giving our student athletes the opportunity to play on the biggest of stages and to compete against the best of the best."
— Matt Potter

The Sooners' home schedule also includes Big 12 matchups against Baylor (Sept. 29), Texas (Oct. 1), Kansas (Oct. 20) and Kansas State (Oct. 22). The Wildcats competed as an indepedent team in their inaugural season and will join the Big 12 for the 2017 season.

In road conference contests, OU will take on Oklahoma State (Sept. 22), Iowa State (Oct. 6), West Virginia (Oct. 8), TCU (Oct. 13) and Texas Tech (Oct. 27).

OU's non-conference road schedule includes matches against SMU (Aug. 20), Oregon (Sept. 1, in Boise, Idaho), Boise State (Sept. 3), California (Sept. 15), San Francisco (Sept. 17) and LMU (Sept. 24).

"While we will be challenged to go on the road, I am excited for the community to be able to watch some great games here on campus," Potter said. "We will have to be ready, both individually and collectively, if we are to repeat the successes of last season. I anticipate that will be the case as our current team is aware of the schedule, the standards set by those before them, and the responsibility of continuing to build now it is under their watch."

Six of OU's 2017 regular season opponents competed in the NCAA Tournament last year, including California, Kansas, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas Tech and NCAA Runner-Up West Virginia. Exhibition foe BYU also qualified for the postseason and advanced to the Sweet 16.

The Big 12 Championship will again take place at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Mo., the fifth straight year the venue will host the event. The conference's top eight teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament from Nov. 1-5 as they vie for a Big 12 title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Oklahoma is coming off a record-setting 2016 season in which it picked up its first-ever win in NCAA play with a 1-0 victory over SMU in the first round of the tournament. The victory represented its 14th of the season, the most in school history. In 2017, the Sooners will return 19 players from that squad while adding a talented seven-member signing class.

Season tickets for the 2017 OU soccer season will go on sale in June, and more information will be released at a later date.

2017 Schedule
Date	Opponent	Site	Time (CT)
Aug. 11	BYU	Norman, Okla.	7 p.m.
Aug. 18	Arizona	Norman, Okla.	7 p.m.
Aug. 20	SMU	Dallas, Texas	7 p.m.
Aug. 25	Oklahoma State	Norman, Okla.	7 p.m.
Aug. 27	Tulsa	Norman, Okla.	6 p.m.
Sept. 1	Oregon	Boise, Idaho	3 p.m.
Sept. 3	Boise State	Boise, Idaho	3 p.m.
Sept. 10	Illinois	Norman, Okla.	1 p.m.
Sept. 15	California	Berkeley, Calif.	6 p.m.
Sept. 17	San Francisco	San Francisco, Calif.	3 p.m.
Sept. 22	Oklahoma State *	Stillwater, Okla.	4 p.m.
Sept. 24	LMU	Los Angeles, Calif.	6 p.m.
Sept. 29	Baylor *	Norman, Okla.	7 p.m.
Oct. 1	Texas *	Norman, Okla.	1 p.m.
Oct. 6	Iowa State *	Ames, Iowa	TBA
Oct. 8	West Virginia *	Morgantown, W. Va.	TBA
Oct. 13	TCU *	Fort Worth, Texas	TBA
Oct. 20	Kansas *	Norman, Okla.	7 p.m.
Oct. 22	Kansas State *	Norman, Okla.	1 p.m.
Oct. 27	Texas Tech *	Lubbock, Texas	TBA

* Big 12 Match | Dates and times subject to change

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Announce Competitive 2017 Slate

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors