Kalamazoo, Michigan — The Western Michigan women's soccer program announced its 2024 schedule today, opening on August 6th.
The Broncos open with a pair of exhibition contests against Notre Dame (August 6) and Northwestern (August 10). Notre Dame comes to Kalamazoo, while WMU travels to Evanston to face the Wildcats.
To begin the regular season, the Brown and Gold will play three home games against Northern Kentucky (August 15), Iowa (August 22) and Marquette (August 25). The Broncos shut out Northern Kentucky last season in Highland Heights, Kentucky.
Following the stretch of home games, Western Michigan will play a five-game stretch on the road from the WMU Soccer Complex. That record begins on Aug. 29 against Creighton. WMU has an overall record of 0-1-1 against the Blue Jays. WMU will then travel to Madison to face the Badgers of Wisconsin on September 1st.
The Brown and Gold will then travel to Detroit (Sept. 8) and DePaul (Sept. 15). WMU is 1-1 all-time against DePaul and 2-0-1 in its last three games against Detroit. The Broncos then begin MAC play on the road against Ohio.
After that daunting road trip, Western Michigan University returns home for two conference games against Miami (Sept. 22) and Buffalo (Sept. 26). The Broncos won their second straight game last season, outscoring those two opponents by a combined score of 5-1. These two home games will be followed by two road games at Central Michigan (Sept. 29) and Kent State (October 6). Western Michigan also beat both teams in the regular season last year.
Two of the Broncos' next three games will be back in Kalamazoo, with Bowling Green coming to Kalamazoo on Oct. 10. The two teams ended in a draw last season. WMU heads to Eastern Michigan on Oct. 13 and returns home to face Akron on Oct. 17. WMU's final road game of the season will be Oct. 24 at Toledo.
Ball State (Oct. 27) and Northern Illinois (Oct. 31) come to Kalamazoo to close out the regular season. Western Michigan shut out NIU and tied with Ball State in 2023. Following the regular season, the MAC Tournament begins on November 3rd. After the quarterfinal round, the MAC semifinals will be held on November 7th. on Nov. 10, when the conference championship game will be decided.
Western Michigan is the defending regular season champion and becomes the fifth team in MAC history with an undefeated conference record.Broncos return plenty of talent from last year's team, including Defensive Player of the Year Mira Pierre-Webster and Goalkeeper of the Year Lauren Boafo.Along with them, All-MAC performers Jen Brychok, jenna blackburn, Brielle Gomez and abby worthman I'll go back to Kalamazoo and run again.