Indiana Women's Soccer Set to Open 2019 Season at No. 2 North Carolina

Thursday, August 22

Chapel Hill, N.C.

8:25 PM

Indiana University

North Carolina

Indiana Women's Soccer Set to Open 2019 Season at No. 2 North Carolina

8/21/2019 1:11:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Watch Live ($)Live Stats Indiana Game Notes (PDF)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana Women's Soccer officially kicks off the 2019 season on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. by traveling to No. 2 North Carolina. The game marks the first official contest under head coach Erwin van Bennekom.

Thursday's match will be available on ACC Network Extra with Dean Linke and Kyle Straub on the call.

The Hoosiers will open the home slate this Sunday by hosting UIC at 1 p.m. Admission is free to all home games.

SCOUTING THE TAR HEELS
• The Tar Heels are coming off their 25th appearance in the NCAA Championship as North Carolina fell to Florida State in the title game. UNC finished the year 21-4-2 and winners of the ACC regular season. North Carolina came in at No. 2 in this year's United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll and were picked as the preseason favorite to win the ACC title again. Juniors Emily Fox and Alessio Russo and sophomore Brianna Pinto were all tabbed for the All-ACC Preseason Team. Thursday's game marks the first official contest for the women's soccer team in the new UNC Lacrosse & Soccer Stadium, which was opened on March 2.

• North Carolina has won both previous meetings against the Hoosiers. The last contest came in the Second Round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, a 4-0 UNC win in Chapel Hill.

START OF VAN BENNEKOM ERA
• Erwin van Bennekom was named the fourth coach in Indiana Women's Soccer history on Dec. 4, 2018 after spending the last four seasons at Duke as associate head coach. His time at Duke was the most successful stretch in the Blue Devils' history, earning a 68-17-11 record and advancing to a pair of Women's College Cups.

• Completing his staff are assistant coaches Bri Young and Doug Starnes, as well as Emily Basten and Director of Operations/Video Analyst Alex Ng. Young, a former All-American at Texas A&M joins the Hoosiers after serving as an assistant at Kansas. Starnes spent the previous season as an assistant with IUPUI while Ng served as a student assistant with Valparaiso Women's Soccer. Basten, an alumna of the women's soccer team has been with the program since 2017, previously serving as the team's graduate student manager.

DAVIDSON, LOCKWOOD AND WOS EARN BIG TEN PRESEASON HONORS
• Senior Chandra Davidson, sophomore Oliwia Wos and freshman Avery Lockwood were named to the Big Ten Preseason Honors List, the conference announced on Monday. It marks the second straight year for Davidson, who is the team's active team leader in both goals (9) and points (26). Lockwood is just one of three freshmen who made the list.

RETURNING IN 2019
• Indiana returns five starters from a season ago - Davidson, Allison Jorden, Bethany Kopel, Hanna Németh and Meghan Scott. In addition, Melanie Forbes and Madeline Carlson logged heavy minutes last season.

• Kopel has been the starting goalkeeper for the Hoosiers in each of her first two seasons. In her career, she's tallied 188 saves - already fifth-most all-time at Indiana - with a 1.42 goals against average and nine shutouts.

NEW TO THE HOOSIERS
• IU adds 12 newcomers this year - 10 freshmen and two sophomore transfers.

•Oliwia Wos joined Indiana after spending her freshman season at Wake Forest, starting 13 games as the Demon Deacons advanced to the Third Round of the NCAA Tournament.

• Megan Wampler transferred to IU after playing her freshman season at Dayton.

• The freshman class hails from seven different states - Indiana (Jacelyn Smith and Grace Saccone), Michigan (Avery Lockwood, Bria Telemaque and Madi White), California (Lily Davis), Missouri (Jaimie Tottleben), Texas (Allie Schlom), Georgia (Chloe Briede) and Pennsylvania (Alaina Kalin).

NEWS AND NOTES
• Davidson earned the title of team captain for the season.

• This marks the first road season opener for the program since the 2013 campaign.

• UNC is one of two ACC teams Indiana will face this season as the Hoosiers also take on Louisville Sept. 5.

• While with Duke, van Bennekom's all-time record against North Carolina was 1-2-1. The last time van Bennekom faced the Tar Heels was in the 2017 ACC Tournament championship.

IMPROVEMENTS TO BILL ARMSTRONG STADIUM
• Prior to the start of the 2019 season, the entire playing service was replaced with new Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass. In addition, an improved drainage system was added to the field.

• Earlier this summer, the renovations to the playing surface began with removing the top three inches of the existing field. After that, a new drainage system was installed closer to the field's surface to vastly improve on the old system.

• Yeagley Field was then capped with a two-inch sandcap and graded to have just short of a one-percent slope. These measures, along with the new drainage system, have helped to create as much of a "rain proof" field as possible.

WHAT'S AHEAD IN 2019?
The 2019 schedule features seven games against 2018 NCAA Tournament participants and eight against teams ranked or receiving votes in the final United Soccer Coaches Poll of the season. Six of this year's opponents were ranked or received votes in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Rankings, highlighted by No. 2 North Carolina and No. 6 Penn State.

IU's non-conference portion includes seven games with three coming against those in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Five of those contests will come on the road with UIC (Aug. 25) and Morehead State (Aug. 30) to be played at Bill Armstrong Stadium.

The Big Ten slate includes home games against Iowa (Sept. 20), Nebraska (Sept. 22), Minnesota (Oct. 6), Penn State (Oct. 10), Oct. 13 (Ohio State) and Purdue (Oct. 27). On the road, the Hoosiers will travel to Michigan State (Sept. 27), Michigan (Sept. 29), Illinois (Oct. 3), Maryland (Oct. 17) and Rutgers (Oct. 20).

HOW TO WATCH #IUWS
Every home game will be available for streaming on BTN Plus, beginning with this Sunday's home opener against UIC. BTN Plus is a web-only streaming service that is available for a small monthly fee.

Live stats will be available for every game on IUHoosiers.com.