2026 Schedules

[mngopher]

https://athletics.stolaf.edu/sports/mens-soccer/schedule

St. Olaf's 2026 schedule looks pretty typical for the Oles. Nonconference headliners are Chicago, Edgewood, and Luther. All of them won a game in the NCAAs last season. Central, UW-Platteville, and UW-Superior are solid opponents as well.

One thing that bothers is the conference game against crosstown rival Carleton is again a middle of the season weekday game. For a while that game was played on the final Saturday of the regular season, but for whatever reason that tradition ended. For the last 7-8 seasons the Olaf-Carleton game has typically been a weekday 3:30pm or 4pm game. It used to be an informal gathering of soccer alumni when it was that last Saturday of the season (or at least some other Saturday), but the late afternoon weekday slot is not very conducive to getting a good alumni turnout.

[B Teamer]

Stockton has posted their schedule on the Instagram.

[Kuiper]

Eastern Mennonite

Grove City and Geneva are off this schedule this year, but fellow Pennsylvania school Gettysburg travels to EMU.  They also leave off John Jay, Mary Baldwin, and Johnson & Wales (NC) and add Salisbury, St. Mary's College of Maryland, VMI (DI).

Rhodes

Rhodes had a brutally hard schedule to start last season, playing Johns Hopkins and Montclair St.  This year, they start with Ozarks and Huntingdon, which should be more competitive games.  In their tournament in mid-September, they play ASC schools LeTuorneau and East Texas Baptist, which should be less challenging ASC opponents than Mary Hardin-Baylor, who they played last season.  They once again travel to Southwestern and Trinity in SAA play, but this time they do it for the last two games of conference play.  If they have aspirations of playing in the SAA conference tournament, they would do well to build up cushion early in the season and not have to come into South Texas and pick up points to make it.

[Ejay]

Eastern Mennonite

Grove City and Geneva are off this schedule this year, but fellow Pennsylvania school Gettysburg travels to EMU.  They also leave off John Jay, Mary Baldwin, and Johnson & Wales (NC) and add Salisbury, St. Mary's College of Maryland, VMI (DI).

That's a massive upgrade for EMU, a team that hasn't been above .500 since 2017.

[Kuiper]

Some Region X schedules

George Fox

After playing 4 non-conference games last season, George Fox cuts it down to two, traveling to Southern California to play SCIAC opponents La Verne and Caltech.  From the perspective of NPI, however, it's actually an increase in countable games because in 2025 they played 3 NAIA opponents and 1 NCAA D3 opponent.  This year, they have two D3 opponents.  I doubt any of that matters to George Fox, though, since they went 5-9-6 last season and, like all NWC teams, they basically have to win the conference to go to the NCAA tournament.

LeTourneau

LeTourneau replaces Berry and Maryville with two other SAA opponents - Sewanee and Rhodes. They also replace a conference game against Schreiner with a non-conference game against Schreiner, which has moved from the SCAC to the ASC for Fall 2026.  That's kind of symbolic of the oddity of having two D3 conferences in Texas.  It makes sense that they would split in two to maximize NCAA auto bid spots and to regionalize a bit in the large Lone Star state, but regardless of which conference each school is in, they're still going to have to play each other because there aren't a lot of other D3 options available.

[Kuiper]

Babson

Babson had a down, or at least uneven, year in 2025 by their lofty standards, that looked a lot better by year's end.  Ties to UMass Boston and Covenant were troubling, but both teams ended up having pretty strong seasons, and an uncommon three game losing streak with losses to Roger Williams, Brandeis, and Amherst, plus four dispiriting conference results - ties to Salve Regina and Coast Guard and losses to Emerson and Wheaton - put Babson at risk of not making the NCAA tournament.  They turned it around to win the NEWMAC tournament and then beat Oneonta to advance to the second round before falling to Conn College on two PKs, the second in the 81st minute.  This year's schedule is a bit less challenging than last year's.  No extensive travel to Georgia, no UMass Boston or a good Occidental team to push them on opening weekend, and they get Amherst, Salve Regina, Emerson, and Coast Guard at home this season.  Tufts away will be a big hill to climb and Brandeis and Wheaton away should be challenges again, but they get newly resurgent Bates at home instead of Wesleyan. Plus, with the exception of a couple of players on the backline, they get all their starters back, including all their top scorers (especially Yablonovskiy), and their freshman/sophomore starters will have a year of experience under their belts.

[BaboNation]

Babson

Babson had a down, or at least uneven, year in 2025 by their lofty standards, that looked a lot better by year's end.  Ties to UMass Boston and Covenant were troubling, but both teams ended up having pretty strong seasons, and an uncommon three game losing streak with losses to Roger Williams, Brandeis, and Amherst, plus four dispiriting conference results - ties to Salve Regina and Coast Guard and losses to Emerson and Wheaton - put Babson at risk of not making the NCAA tournament.  They turned it around to win the NEWMAC tournament and then beat Oneonta to advance to the second round before falling to Conn College on two PKs, the second in the 81st minute.  This year's schedule is a bit less challenging than last year's.  No extensive travel to Georgia, no UMass Boston or a good Occidental team to push them on opening weekend, and they get Amherst, Salve Regina, Emerson, and Coast Guard at home this season.  Tufts away will be a big hill to climb and Brandeis and Wheaton away should be challenges again, but they get newly resurgent Bates at home instead of Wesleyan. Plus, with the exception of a couple of players on the backline, they get all their starters back, including all their top scorers (especially Yablonovskiy), and their freshman/sophomore starters will have a year of experience under their belts.

I wonder if this is still a work in progress.  Only 14 games listed after regular seasons of 19-19-18 the last 3 years.  September seems particularly light.

[Kuiper]

Babson

Babson had a down, or at least uneven, year in 2025 by their lofty standards, that looked a lot better by year's end.  Ties to UMass Boston and Covenant were troubling, but both teams ended up having pretty strong seasons, and an uncommon three game losing streak with losses to Roger Williams, Brandeis, and Amherst, plus four dispiriting conference results - ties to Salve Regina and Coast Guard and losses to Emerson and Wheaton - put Babson at risk of not making the NCAA tournament.  They turned it around to win the NEWMAC tournament and then beat Oneonta to advance to the second round before falling to Conn College on two PKs, the second in the 81st minute.  This year's schedule is a bit less challenging than last year's.  No extensive travel to Georgia, no UMass Boston or a good Occidental team to push them on opening weekend, and they get Amherst, Salve Regina, Emerson, and Coast Guard at home this season.  Tufts away will be a big hill to climb and Brandeis and Wheaton away should be challenges again, but they get newly resurgent Bates at home instead of Wesleyan. Plus, with the exception of a couple of players on the backline, they get all their starters back, including all their top scorers (especially Yablonovskiy), and their freshman/sophomore starters will have a year of experience under their belts.

I wonder if this is still a work in progress.  Only 14 games listed after regular seasons of 19-19-18 the last 3 years.  September seems particularly light.

Agreed.  The first weekend (9/5-9/6) seems to be the most glaring hole in the schedule.