SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (July 19, 2023) – The UC Santa Barbara Women's Soccer team released its 2023 schedule on Wednesday, July 19. Head Coach Paul Stumpf will enter his 24th season at the helm of the program, guiding the Gauchos through a 19-match slate in the 2023 season.
The Gauchos will open the 2023 regular season at Harder Stadium on August 17 against Loyola Marymount. After a trip to San Jose State (a 2022 NCAA Tournament team) on August 20, the Gauchos will return home to Harder Stadium to take on Westmont at 7 p.m. on August 22 for the annual Community Shield Game.
UC Santa Barbara will then hit the road for a four-game road trip. The Gauchos open up the road trip in the Central Valley as they take on Fresno State on August 24 and Pacific on August 27. After their two-game stretch in the Central Valley, the Gauchos travel to the Midwest to take on the University of Nebraska Omaha (another 2022 NCAA Tournament team) on August 31 and start September with Power Five opponent Iowa State on September 3.
During the month of September, UC Santa Barbara will be at home five times, beginning with San Francisco on September 7 for Childhood Cancer Awareness Night. The Gauchos will follow that match-up as they play host to Idaho on September 10. During halftime of the match against Idaho, the Gauchos will host an AYSO Banner Parade.
"One of the great challenges with our conference is we have 10 different opponents who present a few different systems and styles to compete with," explained Stumpf. "Our non-conference schedule is very challenging with games against high-caliber opponents including San Jose State and Nebraska - Omaha who were NCAA Tournament participants a year ago. The non-conference portion of our schedule will provide the same variety of systems and styles to prepare us for those conference games."
UC Santa Barbara then begins Big West action with the Blue-Green Rivalry against Cal Poly on September 14. The Gauchos will honor the Hispanic Community with the game also representing Hispanic Heritage Night. UC Santa Barbara ends their four-game home stand with Saint Mary's on September 17 and will welcome local Faith Groups to Harder Stadium for Faith Night.
The Gauchos will then finish the regular season with nine straight Big West contests. They will host UC Riverside on September 28 and Cal State Fullerton on October 1 for their Breast Cancer Awareness Kickoff match.
UC Santa Barbara will travel to San Diego to take on UC San Diego on October 5 before finishing off their home matches the following weekend. The Gauchos will host CSUN on October 12 and CSU Bakersfield on October 15 where they will honor their seniors for Senior Night while also welcoming local Elementary Schools for Elementary School Night.
The Big West quarterfinals are scheduled for October 29, the semifinal round for November 2, and the championship on November 5. The quarterfinal round will be hosted by the higher seed while the semifinals and championship match will be hosted by the regular-season champion and No. 1 overall seed.
This season, UC Santa Barbara Soccer is selling one season ticket for all of the men's and women's games. This gives fans the chance to catch all of the excitement for both of our teams in the race for a Big West Championship. These tickets will go on sale Wednesday, July 26.
