CHENEY – After the traditional fall 2020 season was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a fresh 2021 Big Sky Conference schedule awaits the Eastern Washington soccer team, as announced by the conference office Nov. 5.
The Eagles will play four matches at home and five on the road. The Big Sky Conference will continue its normal round-robin format, with each team playing each other once. However, there will be no conference tournament and the winner of the 2021 regular conference season will receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The season officially opens on March 12 at Northern Arizona. The Eagles will look to defend a three-match winning streak over the Lumberjacks, having outscored NAU 7-0 in the last three meetings. Eastern Washington then looks to win its fourth-straight game over Southern Utah on March 14.
Eastern Washington’s home openers take place on March 19 and March 21 against Sacramento State and Portland State, respectively. Both teams will be heading to Cheney to avenge losses to Eastern that knocked them out of the 2019 Big Sky tournament. After falling to Sacramento State during the regular season, Eastern Washington picked up a double-overtime win in the semifinals to end the Hornets’ 17-game unbeaten streak.
Eastern Washington has won five-straight games over Portland State, including a 3-0 win in last year’s Big Sky Quarterfinals.
EWU then departs on its final, and longest, road swing of the year, with three matches at Montana (March 26), Northern Colorado (March 28) and Idaho (April 4). This time, it will be Eastern’s turn to look for revenge, as they lost the regular season title to Montana last season on Oct. 30 in Cheney before falling to the Bears in the Big Sky Championship match a week and a half later. The Eagles are 6-3-1 against Idaho in the last 10 meetings, including a 3-1 victory in Cheney last year.
The final regular season matches take place in Cheney against Weber State on April 9 and Idaho State on April 11. Eastern Washington will go for its second-straight win over the Wildcats and its sixth-straight over the Bengals.
Prior to the postponement of the traditional fall schedule, Eastern Washington was voted third by the coaches in preseason Big Sky poll. The Eagles finished the 2019 season with a winning record for the fifth-straight year, finishing 11-8-2 with a 6-2-1 conference record. They also advanced to the Big Sky title game for the third time in four years.
EWU returns 21 players and 10 starters, including the 2019 Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, Taylor Matheny, and First-Team selection Sariah Keister.
It has yet to be determined if the Eagles will play or host any non-conference date.
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