MIAMI (Aug. 20, 2015) — After a month-long preseason, the FIU women's soccer team takes to the pitch on Friday night for its season-opening match versus the Dayton Flyers, with a first kick time slated for 7 pm. The Panthers will then head upstate for a Sunday matinee with the Stetson Hatters at 1 pm.
 
Game Day Central
Friday, Aug. 21 vs. Dayton – 7 pm ET
Venue: FIU Soccer Stadium
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Sunday, Aug. 23 at Stetson – 1 pm ET
Venue: Athletic Training Center
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Match Day Quotes
Head Coach Thomas Chestnutt
"We're excited to finally get to a real match. Preseason is always fun because it's all soccer all the time, but now we're getting into the real season, and Dayton is a great test to lead off with. They'll offer us some good challenges right off the bat, and we'll see how the team responds. Our senior leadership throughout the summer and preseason has been outstanding and has really helped steady out group. Our returning players like Talia McMurtrie and Alyssa Robinson have done a great job being vocal on their lines. The freshmen have had a great preseason with that guidance. Quite a number of them will be playing good minutes, and we're excited for their first collegiate match."
 
Senior Marie Egan
"We're all really excited to get this first game in. We've all worked incredibly hard all preseason for this, and we can't wait to go out there and finally play. These past few weeks have been great for our cohesiveness. We're just telling the freshmen to come out with high intensity and confidence tomorrow night."
 
Scouting Dayton
Coming off a 2014 season where the Flyers were crowned A-10 Champions, Dayton returns the foundation of a team that fell to then-No. 14 Virginia in the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. NCSAA All-Region First Team selection Ashley Campbell returns for her senior season, coming off a campaign where she netted 16 goals and accumulated 38 points. Also suiting up for the Flyers one final time will be Nicole Waters, a redshirt senior midfielder who facilitated the ball for a team-high 18 assists one season ago.
 
Scouting Stetson
A young squad with 16 underclassmen, including eight newcomers, Stetson and third-year Head Coach Manoj Khettry return the team's nucleus of 2014 All-Atlantic Sun Second Teamer and 2015 A-Sun preseason selection Makeshia Lucien, Mara Keomanivane and Autumn Matthews. Khettry tested his group throughout its preseason with exhibition matches against USF and Miami.
 
Match Notes
 
¦ The Panthers open the season at home for the third-straight season on August 21 versus Dayton. Head Coach Thomas Chesnutt and his squad have seen Dayton just once in the team's 31-year history, which took place back in 2013, with FIU falling, 4-0.
 
¦ Dayton has a special connection to Chestnutt, who graduated as a Flyer in 1995 with a degree in biochemistry.
 
¦ FIU welcomes a new roster in 2015, as two of the Panthers' top 10 program scorers graduated in 2014. Chestnutt has brought in an 11-player signing class for 2015, with 10 of those athletes being true freshmen. Junior transfer Sophia Trujillo spent the last two seasons at San Diego State before coming back to her native roots in South Florida.
 
¦ Nevena Stojakovic, who played every minute in net as a freshman in 2014, will see depth at her position, as FIU has three goalkeepers on its current roster.
 
¦ FIU opens its road slate on August 23, as FIU travels upstate to Deland, Fla., to face Stetson, a team that FIU has won three-straight against dating back to 2012. In a series where FIU is 15-4-1, the Panthers have never lost consecutive matches versus the Hatters.
 
Record Chasin'
With 17 assists in her three years as a Panther, senior Madlen Weinhardt finds herself seven helpers shy of the all-time record of 24 as she enters her senior campaign. Last year, Weinhardt assisted on five occasions.