United Soccer Leagues announced the 2009 regular season schedule for the W-League, which will be kicking off its 15th season with the Hampton Roads Piranhas, one of the league’s original teams from 1995, visiting the Charlotte Lady Eagles in the lone game of Opening Night on Friday, May 8th. The Northern Virginia Majestics begin their 2009 campaign May 16th on the road against the instate rival Piranhas.
The Majestics return to the Atlantic Division for 2009 and open their home season on May 30th at 6:00PM against W-League newcomers Cary (NC) Clarets. Northern Virginia then returns to home action the following weekend, facing off against longtime rivals Richmond Kickers Destiny on Sunday June 7th.
Northern Virginia is slated to face a full summer of top opponents in the difficult Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Division rivals this summer also include W-League mainstays Charlotte and the Atlanta Silverbacks, as well as a first-time meeting with second-year franchise Tampa Bay Hellenic.
The Northern Virginia Majestics will play all of their home matches on the new state-of-the-art Sprinturf stadium field at Hellwig Memorial Park in Manassas, Virginia.
The Great Lakes and Northeast divisions will play 14-game schedules with the remaining divisions, to include all playing a 12-match campaign.
The season concludes Sunday, July 19 with a slate of 10 matches that will see Washington and FC Indiana both in action. The playoffs will begin just days later as the Great Lakes Division plays a midweek Divisional Round match between the second and third seeds to determine the second participant in the conference tournament.
As previously announced, the W-League postseason has been extended to three weeks with the league semifinals and championship being split into two separate weekends. Eleven W-League teams will qualify for the postseason tournament in 2009 with the league’s Regular Season Champion (based on point percentage) receiving a bye to the league semifinals. The remaining teams will compete in three conference tournaments in playoff week one July 24-26 to determine the other three league semifinalists for the weekend of July 31-August 1 at two locations. The regular season champion will face the lowest remaining overall seed unless they have played during the season, which would result in a pairing with the next lowest seed. The championship game will be August 7-8, and will air on Fox Soccer Channel.
[+] 2009 NORTHERN VIRGINIA MAJESTICS SCHEDULE
