The Big East Conference Wednesday announced the signing of a three-year deal to play the league’s men’s and women’s soccer championships at Maryland SoccerPlex beginning this fall.
The facility, located in Boyds, Md., about 30 miles north of Washington, will host semifinals and championship matches for the men’s and women’s soccer championships. Opening round matches still will be played at the higher seed’s home stadium.
Since 2015, all Big East soccer tournament matches have been played on campus sites. From 2010-14 the men’s soccer championship was contested at either Red Bull Arena or PPL Park, now known as Subaru Park. The women’s soccer championship has been hosted at a school-affiliated site since first conference tournament in 1993.
“This is an exciting opportunity to showcase some of the best collegiate soccer in the country,” Big East executive associate commissioner for sports administration and championships Chris Schneider said in a statement. “The Maryland SoccerPlex has a history of hosting incredible soccer events and we look forward to working with them and their youth soccer community on creating memorable experiences for our student-athletes.”
The Maryland SoccerPlex is a 24-field complex that welcomes more than one million visitors a year. Opened in 2000, the SoccerPlex was built with a public-private partnership between the Maryland Soccer Foundation and the Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning Commission. In the center of the Maryland SoccerPlex sits Maureen Hendrick’s Field at Championship Stadium. That field provides an intimate atmosphere to all games played here. The field sits low in a bowl-like stadium and is surrounded by 3,200 hard seats, with an overall capacity of 5,000.
In similar fashion to past seasons, the first-round format of the men’s and women’s championships will have the No. 3 seed host the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed host the No. 5 seed. The women’s opening round will be played on Sunday, Oct. 30, while the men open postseason competition on Saturday, Nov. 5.
The winners will advance to the semifinals at Maryland SoccerPlex, with the women’s semifinal scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 3 and the title match Sunday, Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Men’s semifinal competition takes place on Thursday Nov. 10, prior to the title game on Sunday, Nov. 13.
Ticket information for both the men’s and women’s soccer championships will be announced at a later date.
