Mar. 24– Concordia head women's soccer coach Bob Usselman has announced the 2006 soccer schedule. The Golden Bears begin the regular season with three preseason exhibition home contests, all at home before opening the season at home on Aug. 26 and 27 against NCC rivals Augustana and South Dakota, respectively.

The non-conference schedule also features home games against North Dakota and Sioux Falls. The Bears will play six non-conference road games, two against NCC opponents Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State. They also have back-to-back weekend road trips to Missouri and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In Missouri they take on Northwest Missouri State and Missouri Western and in Michigan they will battle Northern Michigan and Saginaw Valley State.

"This portion of the schedule will be very demanding. In addition to the tough opponents we face every year in the NSIC, we're playing five teams from the NCC (North Central Conference) and two apiece from the (MIAA) Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)," said Usselman of the non-conference schedule.  "This is a tough non-conference schedule, but we're aiming high early in our schedule to prepare us for our league games."

They kick off league play on Sept. 17 when head north to take on MSU Moorhead on the road. This season the Bears will get a look at a pair of newcomers to the Northern Sun as the University of Mary and Upper Iowa join the conference. With the addition of the two schools, the NSIC soccer schedule will return to single round robin format which has allowed Usselman more flexibility in non-conference scheduling.

"The conference was extremely competitive last year. We either beat, tied or lost by one goal to everybody in the NSIC last year, so every game was tightly contested. So we're eager to build towards NSIC during the early portion of our schedule," said Usselman as he looks to prepare the team for NSIC action in 2006.