2023 Concordia Women’s Soccer Schedule
UPDATE (May 22): The program added nonconference road games at Kansas Wesleyan University (Aug. 23) and at Nebraska Wesleyan University (Sept. 14) since this release was initially posted to the website. The additions bring the regular season to a total of 18 games.
SEWARD, Neb. – It will be a new era for Concordia University Women’s Soccer in 2023. The recently appointed Nick Smith will make his collegiate head coaching debut on Aug. 26 when the new campaign officially gets started inside Bulldog Stadium. The program has announced a ’23 schedule (as of May 8) complete with 16 regular season games, including 12 versus GPAC opponents. Ten contests are slated to be held on the home turf.
Smith takes over a program that finished the 2022 season at 10-6-2 overall. The Bulldogs celebrated a GPAC tournament championship as recently as the 2020 season. The ’23 roster will feature a pair of 2022 All-GPAC performers in Grace Soenksen (first team) and Kierstynn Garner (second team). A three-time First Team All-GPAC center back, the Lincoln Lutheran alum Soenksen made the decision to use her COVID season of eligibility and will return this fall.
Concordia is slated to play each of its four nonconference games at home as it takes on Graceland University (Iowa), York University, Tabor College (Kan.) and Benedictine College (Kan.). The program may yet add a road game for the fall. This past season, the Bulldogs defeated Graceland, Tabor and Benedictine. On the strength of a goal from Garner, Concordia knocked off then 25th-ranked Benedictine, 1-0, last September. The matchup with York on Sept. 2 will mark the first meeting between the two nearby programs since 2017. The Bulldogs will enter this season carrying an eight-game winning streak against nonconference foes.
Conference play is slated to open versus Mount Marty on Sept. 16. Other highlights include matchups with 2022 GPAC champions Jamestown (regular season) on Oct. 7 and Hastings (postseason) on Oct. 14 – both on the road. In a unique twist to this schedule, Concordia will not play a road game until venturing to Orange City, Iowa, on Sept. 23 (barring an addition to the schedule). There will be a new addition to the conference in 2023 as Waldorf University (Iowa) takes the place of Presentation College, which announced that the school would close at the conclusion of the 2022-23 academic year. Waldorf finished 2022 at 4-9-3 overall. The Concordia-Waldorf matchup is slated to be played at Bulldog Stadium on Oct. 21.
Dates for the 2023 GPAC tournament are Nov. 2 for the quarterfinals, Nov. 7 for the semifinals and Nov. 10 for the championship game. NAIA National Championship play will get started with the first and second rounds (Nov. 16, 18) before action shifts to the final site in Orange Beach, Ala., Nov. 27-Dec. 4.