SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Notre Dame announced their 2009 Men's Soccer schedule today. The Falcons will kick off their season on Aug. 28 and begin the defense of their 2008 American Mideast Conference championship on Sept. 22. (2009 Schedule)

Notre Dame will open their season on Aug. 28 and 29 at a tournament in Marion, Ind. The Blue & White will play their first match of the season against the Wildcats of Indiana Wesleyan University on the 28th. NDC will also play in a two-day tournament in Mobile, Ala., on Sept. 11-12. In between, the Falcons will renew their series with the Eagles of Ashland University (Sept. 6), in what will be a rematch of a 2-1 loss to AU at home in 2008.

The Falcons' AMC schedule begins on Sept. 22, with a road tilt at Walsh. Later that same week (Sept. 26), NDC will host the first of six home matches, when they welcome the Shawnee State Bears to Korb Field. The Brush High School facility in Lyndhurst, Ohio, will once again serve as the Falcons' home field in 2009. Head Coach #Michael “Mac” McBride#'s crew is 9-2 in their last 11 home games.

Those non-conference affairs include the opener against IWU (18-8 last year), the Sept. 6 match at Ashland (15-4-2, NCAA Tournament team), a neutral-site match-up against Azusa Pacific-Calif. (13-4-2, No. 5 NAIA Coaches' Poll) and an Oct. 17 match against the 2008 NAIA National Championship Tournament runner-up Rio Grande (19-4-1). The Notre Dame-Rio Grande tilt is a non-league match, as the Red Storm have announced a migration from the AMC to the Mid-South Conference.

The 2009 schedule includes six matches at home, six on the road, and four at neutral sites.

Notre Dame Men's Soccer made its second NAIA National Championship Tournament appearance last season (2008), posting a program-record mark of 19-2-1. The Falcons ended the regular season as the No. 2 team in the nation in the Coaches' Poll, went 11-0 in AMC play and swept the conference's regular season and tournament titles.

Under Mac McBride, Notre Dame Soccer has posted a 102-47-12 (.702) record since the program's inception in 2001. NDC is 71-23-7 (.738) over their last five seasons (2004-08).

For media inquiries, contact Sports Information Director Skip Snow at 216-373-5319 or ssnow@ndc.edu.

Notre Dame College is a co-educational liberal arts institution in South Euclid, Ohio. The Notre Dame Department of Athletics sponsors the Falcons' participation in 21 men's and women's intercollegiate sports. The College is affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the American Mideast Conference (AMC). In 2008-09, Notre Dame athletic programs ranked No. 34 in the nation, based on the NAIA Director's Cup all-sports ranking as published by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today.