New Mexico State soccer releases 2023 schedule

LAS CRUCES – New Mexico State women's soccer coach Rob Baarts announced the Aggies 2023 schedule this week. The Aggies will play a 17-games including nine home and eight road matchups, as well as eight Conference USA games.

The 2022 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champions are looking to carry the success of last season into their new home in Conference USA. Last fall, the Aggies reached new heights after winning a program-high of 13 games, including an undefeated record at home (7-0-2), leading to the program's first conference title and first postseason appearance.

Now that NM State is officially a member of CUSA, they will have to familiarize themselves with a few new faces, specifically the likes of FIU, Jacksonville State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky.

The Aggies are already familiar with UTEP and Sam Houston, having played UTEP 12 times over the last 13 years and sharing a conference (WAC) with Sam Houston for the previous two years.

The Aggies are slated to face all eight conference opponents this season.

The 2023 campaign kicks off on August 10 with a home exhibition against Cochise College. From there, NM State will begin its regular season with back-to-back road matchups against Portland State (Aug. 17) and Texas Tech (Aug. 20).

Last season, The Vikings made the trip down to Las Cruces, where they fell to the Aggies 3-0 after seeing goals from Sydnee Johnson, Loma McNeese and Bianca Chacon. This will mark the first time the Aggies and Red Raiders will meet in the regular season since 2012.

The two teams met this past spring for an exhibition that saw Texas Tech take a 1-0 victory over the Aggies in Lubbock.

Following their trip to West Texas, the Aggies will face another Power 5 opponent in Arizona State for their home opener on Aug. 24 — the first of five straight games played at the NM State Soccer Complex. Aside from facing the Sun Devils, the five-game home stand will also include Cal State Fullerton (Aug. 27), Incarnate Word (Aug. 31), University of the Pacific (Sept. 3) and UNLV (Sept. 7).

The Aggies wrap up their non-conference slate with a pair of road matchups against New Mexico (Sept. 10) and USC (Sept. 14). This will mark the 12th meeting between the Aggies and Lobos in the Rio Grande Rivalry — the first since the Fall 2021 season — however, the two teams did meet during the spring in Albuquerque, where the Aggies came away with a 5-1 victory.

NM State will open CUSA play on Sept. 17 with a home match against Louisiana Tech before heading south for a date with UTEP on Sept. 21 for the Battle of I-10. The Aggies secured a 3-0 shutout victory against the Miners last season and came away with a 4-0 shutout win in their spring exhibition back in March.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico State soccer releases 2023 schedule