Women’s Soccer 7/7/2020 10:04:00 AM Ryan Shumaker

The Eastern New Mexico women’s soccer team recently released its 2020 regular season game schedule featuring 14 regular season contests.

The Hounds will compete in 13 Lone Star Conference games a year after finishing last season with an overall record of 8-8-1 and a conference record of 5-8. New head coach Abbey Barnum will enter 2020 with four players who have received All-LSC recognition in their career as well as a wealth of talented underclassman who received plenty of game action in 2019.

2020 will get started for Eastern New Mexico inside Greyhound Stadium with their lone non-conference match of the year against Great American Conference foe Northwestern Oklahoma State on Sept. 13. The Hounds failed to concede a single game to a non-conference opponent last season, and will need to get the 2020 campaign started out fast against the Rangers before immediately jumping into LSC play.

The LSC opener will take place on the road against a Texas Woman’s squad on Sept. 23 that earned a bid to the 2019 South Central Regional Tournament following an overall record of 15-5-1. The Hounds have won just two games against the Pioneers in 11 attempts in Denton, Texas throughout the series history.

Eastern New Mexico will then return home to Greyhound Stadium for the next two matches as they face off with Angelo State on Sept. 26 and Midwestern State on Sept. 30. The Greyhounds have bested Midwestern State in five straight matches and have scored multiple goals in each of those five wins.

The Hounds will make the trek down to Austin, Texas to take on St. Edward’s on Oct. 3rd before having the ensuing Wednesday off prior to welcoming St. Mary’s to Greyhound Stadium on Oct. 10. Coach Barnum and company will then have three straight contests beginning on Oct. 14 against Oklahoma Christian against teams with a combined record of 5-31-3 in 2019, finishing up on Oct. 17 against Texas A&M-International and on Oct. 21 against UT Permian Basin.

The level of competition will then quickly skyrocket for the Hounds as they are set to take on the reigning LSC Regular Season and Tournament Champions in Dallas Baptist on the road on Oct. 24. The Patriots finished 2019 with an impressive 17-3-1 record before having their season come to an end in the semifinals of the South Central Regional Tournament.

This year’s rivalry game against West Texas A&M will take place inside Greyhound Stadium as the Hounds will welcome the Lady Buffs to Portales on Oct. 28. Eastern will look to avenge a 2-1 loss last season and will attempt to notch the program’s first win in Portales since 2014.

The Hounds will hit the road for consecutive contests on Oct. 31 and Nov. 4 against Texas A&M-Commerce and Lubbock Christian prior to the regular season home finale on Nov. 7 against UT Tyler. Eastern New Mexico will be looking to piece together another strong senior weekend in 2020 after picking up a pair of wins in 2019 on the final homestand of the year against Oklahoma Christian and Midwestern State.