The Western Kentucky women’s soccer team’s 2022 schedule was announced Friday.

The slate includes 18 regular-season matches, two exhibitions, 10 conference games and nine home matches.

The Lady Toppers open with a pair of exhibition matches, playing Murray State at home Aug. 10 and Austin Peay on the road Aug. 14. WKU officially opens the season on the road at Xavier on Aug. 18. The first regular-season home match will be Aug. 20 versus Union (Tenn.). The Lady Toppers close out August with two road matches at Vanderbilt (Aug. 25) and Tennessee Tech (Aug. 28).

WKU hosts Kentucky (Sept. 1) and Belmont (Sept. 4) to kick off September. Then, the Lady Toppers will go on the road for three straight matches at Ole Miss (Sept. 8), Arkansas State (Sept. 11) and Louisiana Tech (Sept. 15). From the Louisiana Tech match on, WKU will play its conference portion of the schedule.

The Lady Toppers host UTEP (Sept. 22) and North Texas (Sept. 25) before flipping the calendar to October.

The Lady Toppers will hit the road to take on Middle Tennessee (Oct. 2) and FIU (Oct. 7), before returning home to host Florida Atlantic (Oct. 13) and UAB (Oct. 16). WKU will take a Texas road trip with matches at Rice (Oct. 20) and UTSA (Oct. 23) and then close out the regular season at home against Charlotte on Oct. 28.

The Conference USA championship will be Nov. 2-6 in Charlotte, N.C.

In 2021, WKU finished the season with a 10-5-1 overall record and a 5-2-1 league record for a second-place finish in the C-USA East division. The Lady Toppers finished the 2021 spring season – the 2020 season was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic – 8-2-2 overall and 4-0-2 in C-USA, finishing first in the East division.

The Lady Toppers lost five letterwinners and two starters to graduation from the 2021 season. WKU returns all-conference picks Lyric Schmidt and Katie Erwin this fall.

All WKU home matches are played at the WKU Soccer Complex and have free admission.