July 12, 2006

Fairfax, Va.--George Mason University's men's soccer team has 17 regular season games slated for the 2006 campaign, which includes six teams that participated in the 2005 NCAA College Cup. The Patriots will play seven games at George Mason Stadium, including four in the month of October.

The Patriots open up their season at home against Monmouth on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. for just the second meeting between these two teams. Mason will then play its next five games on the road, which includes a match-up against the University of Virginia on Sept. 1 (7 p.m.) for the Patriots first road contest. Last season, the Cavaliers advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2005 College Cup, but fell to North Carolina by a score of 2-1.

"Our goal is to compete against the best and we are on our way to achieving this goal as three of our non-conference opponents competed in last year's NCAA Tournament," said head coach Greg Andrulis. "With five of our first six games on the road, we will be tested early, but will be able to prepare us for conference play."

After visiting La Salle (Sept. 3), Mason will compete in the Yale Classic in New Haven, Conn. and both schools the Patriots will face competed in the 2005 College Cup. Mason will first square-off with Yale (Sept. 8) and will wrap-up competition against Dartmouth two days later.

The Patriots will open up Colonial Athletic Association action in Fairfax after ending its non-conference play at George Washington (Sept. 16). Mason will host both Northeastern (Sept. 22) and Hofstra (Sept. 24), which was crowned 2005 CAA Tournament Champions. Last season the Patriots ended in a scoreless tie with the Pride on Oct. 9 in Hempstead, N.Y.

"The CAA is one of the best college soccer conferences in the country and, by upgrading our non-conference schedule, another goal we hope to achieve is to be able to compete in this year's conference championship," commented Andrulis.

After playing at UNC Wilmington (Sept. 29) and Georgia State (Oct. 1), the Patriots travel to Norfolk to face last season's CAA regular season conference champion, Old Dominion (Oct. 13). The remaining road games for Mason are against William & Mary (Oct. 15) and Virginia Commonwealth (Oct. 20).

Other home conference contests include: Delaware (Oct. 6), Drexel (Oct. 8), James Madison (Oct. 22) and Towson (Oct. 27), which is the final regular season game.

The CAA Tournament First Round is slated to be played at the highest seed on Oct. 31 and the semifinals (Nov. 3) , as well as the championship game (Nov. 5) will be played at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex in Virginia Beach, Va.