“I am thrilled with the challenge of our fall schedule,” said Drake head coach Sean Holmes.

The Bulldogs open the season against Indiana at the College Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Hoosiers have won seven NCAA titles and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2008 tournament.

“Being chosen to play Indiana at the College Soccer Festival, the soccer equivalent of the NIT, is a great honor and shows the great strides that soccer at Drake has taken,” commented Holmes.

Drake has a three-game home stand against DePaul (Sept. 1), Michigan (Sept. 4) and Marquette (Sept. 6). Michigan advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament last season before falling to Indiana.

“We open with an incredible home game stretch against great programs like DePaul, Michigan and Marquette,” said Holmes.

The Bulldogs then take to the road for a seven-game stretch. First up is the UAB Soccer for a Cure Tournament where they will face host UAB (Sept. 11) and Memphis (Sept. 13). Another tournament follows with contests against Missouri-Kansas City (Sept. 18) and Oral Roberts (Sept. 20) at the UMKC Invitational.

Drake travels to another NCAA tournament qualifier, Northwestern (Sept. 25), for the 10th meeting between the two teams.

Missouri Valley Conference play opens at Bradley (Oct. 3), followed by the final non-conference game at Western Illinois (Oct. 7).

Drake closes with seven MVC games, the first of which is at NCAA tournament quarterfinalist Creighton (Oct. 14). The Bulldogs are home against Missouri State (Oct. 17) and Eastern Illinois (Oct. 21) before traveling to Evansville (Oct. 24).

“The new home and away conference schedule will be extremely challenging and will be a test of our  depth and character,” said Holmes.

Bradley comes to town Oct. 28 before the Bulldogs have road games at Missouri State (Oct. 31) and Eastern Illinois (Nov. 4).

Drake welcomes defending league champions Creighton for the final regular season game Nov. 7. The Bulldogs will then host the MVC tournament for the first time in program history.

The men's soccer tournament will be played at the Cownie Soccer Complex Nov. 13-15.  After four straight years of a Wednesday-Friday-Sunday format involving all six tournament teams, the 2009 tournament will feature a four-team championship.  The semifinals will be played at 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, and the televised championship game on Fox Sports is Sunday, Nov. 15.