GREENVILLE, N.C. — The East Carolina soccer team will play an 18-game regular season schedule featuring seven home games in the familiar confines of Johnson Stadium. The Pirates’ schedule will also feature seven games against in-state competition including a trip to Duke and home contests with UNCW and Charlotte.

After a home exhibition with Elon (Aug. 7) and a road exhibition with North Carolina (Aug. 12), the regular season will officially kick off on Aug. 17 and 20 as the Pirates make a swing through the state of Florida to play the Gators in Gainesville and at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

After the Florida trip, the Pirates will return to Greenville for their home opener against George Mason on Aug. 24 in Johnson Stadium.

A quick trip to Campbell on Aug. 27 is followed up with a home tilt with UNCW on Aug. 31 before the team makes a three-game swing across North Carolina with games at High Point (Sept. 3), Duke (Sept. 7) and Western Carolina (Sept. 10).

Next up, the Pirates will begin conference play with a home matchup against Florida Atlantic (Sept. 14) before concluding their nonconference schedule with a road meeting with UNC Greensboro on Sept. 17.

Then conference play fulling winds up with road games at UAB and South Florida on Sept. 21 and 28, respectively, followed by a three-game home stand with games against Temple (Oct. 5), Memphis (Oct. 11) and Tulsa (Oct. 15).

Road matches at SMU and North Texas on Oct. 19 and 22 set up the home finale with Charlotte on Oct. 26 in Johnson Stadium.

The American Athletic Conference Tournament will be held Oct. 31-Nov. 5 with first round matchups at campus sites and the semifinal and final rounds held at the No. 1 seed.

Quotable
“We are excited to test ourselves with a very competitive 2023 fall schedule,” said head coach Gary Higgins. “We have some top teams lined up for non-conference games and with the addition of some very good programs being added to the American Athletic Conference, we will have a very strong strength of schedule.

“We will have to be road warriors this fall. Out of our 18 regular season games, we have 11 of them away from home. This will build character and I feel we have built a strong foundation of learning to compete in some tough environments last fall. We have to play all of our spring games away from Johnson stadium, so we are able to challenge our team every off season too.

“With us only having 7 home games this coming fall, we hope to see all of Pirate Nation out there supporting us at every game.

“We cannot wait to get started in August and we are ready to compete for Pirate Nation and make you all proud. Thanks, and Go Pirates!”