ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The 2017 schedule for the Navy women's soccer program was released on Tuesday and the 18-game slate will feature nine Patriot League contests and nine non-conference matches. Navy fans will have the chance to watch their team at home in action at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility on 10 separate occasions in 2017.

The Mids under the direction of 25th-year head coach Carin Gabarra begin the season at home on Friday, Aug. 18 versus Tennessee (11-9-1, 5-5-1 SEC). The matchup will serve as the back end of a home-and-home series with the Volunteers that began in 2015 with a meeting in Knoxville that went the way of Tennessee, 3-0.

Navy's first road game of the year will be in its backyard as the Mids will make the quick trip over to College Park for an interstate showdown with the Maryland Terrapins (3-15-1, 1-10 Big Ten) on Sunday, Aug. 20. In 2016, Navy defeated Maryland for the first time in program history with a 5-3 victory coming at home on Sept. 7.

The next weekend will see the Mids split up home and away games again with a road contest on Friday, Aug. 25 at Delaware State (4-9-2) before coming home on Sunday, Aug. 27 for a game versus UNC Wilmington (10-5-4, 4-3-2 CAA). Navy is 3-0 all-time against Delaware State and 0-0-1 against UNCW after tying 2-2 last season in Wilmington.

The third weekend of the season presents Navy with some cross-country competition as the Mids will travel for two games in Northern California. First up on Friday, Sept. 1, the Mids will go head-to-head with the Pacific Tigers (1-15-1, 1-8 WCC) in Stockton before heading west to Palo Alto and Stanford University (18-2-1, 10-1 Pac-12) for a showdown with the reigning Pac-12 Champion Cardinal team on Sunday, Sept. 3. Stanford earned one of the four No. 1 seeds in last year's NCAA Tournament. The Mids and Cardinal matched up in Annapolis in 2016 in Navy's season opener and played out the 90 minutes to a 2-1 score in favor of Stanford. The game was scoreless at halftime before the teams combined for three goals in the second stanza.

Once back on the East Coast, Navy will play back-to-back home games when it hosts James Madison (9-11, 5-4 CAA) on Thursday, Sept. 7 and Central Connecticut State (9-11-1, 6-2 NEC) on Sunday, Sept. 10. The Mids will be looking to even out its series record with Dukes as JMU is 3-2 all-time versus Navy. The two teams last met in 2014 with Navy winning 1-0. The Navy-CCSU series picks up this season after nine years off. The only matchup between the two programs was a 0-0 tie in 2008.

Patriot League play kicks off for the Mids on Friday, Sept. 15 on the road at Holy Cross (3-12-2, 2-5-2 PL). Navy will be looking to break a two-year run of ties versus Holy Cross as the teams tied at 2-2 in 2016 and 0-0 in 2015.

One more non-conference game interrupts the rest of the Mids' Patriot League slate as Navy hosts Howard University (13-4-3, 9-0-1 SWAC) on Monday, Sept. 18. The Mids' improved to 10-0 all-time against the Bison with a 2-1 victory last October in Washington, D.C.

A home matchup versus Loyola (6-6-4, 2-4-3 PL) on Friday, Sept. 22 begins a stretch of eight conference games over six weeks for Navy. Playing on the road in Baltimore last season, the host Greyhounds pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Mids in double overtime.

Up next, Navy has the first of two two-game Patriot League weeks as the Mids play at American (1-16-2, 0-7-2 PL) on Wednesday, Sept. 27 before hosting Lehigh (11-5-2, 5-3-1 PL) on Saturday, Sept. 30. Navy collected a pair of wins versus these teams in 2016 with a 2-0 victory over American and a 3-0 decision against Lehigh.

The month of October opens with a stern test for the Mids as they welcome the Boston University Terriers (9-11-1, 8-1 PL) for a Saturday night home game on Oct. 7. The teams met twice in 2016 with Boston beating Navy 2-0 in the regular season before edging the Mids again in the Patriot League Semifinals, 2-1.

The 2017 Star Match between Army (4-12-2, 2-5-2 PL) and Navy is scheduled for Friday night, Oct. 13 at West Point. Last season, a goal in the ninth minute by Anabell Motley stood up as the game-winner for the Mids, who improved to 14-11-3 all-time over the Black Knights.

The following week, another two-game slate awaits Navy as the team hosts Lafayette (7-8-4, 3-5-1 PL) on Wednesday, Oct. 18 before hitting the road for a contest at Colgate (8-8-3, 5-4 PL) on Saturday, Oct. 21. The Mids went to overtime in both regular season matchups versus the Leopards and Raiders as they dropped 1-0 decision to Lafayette and pulled out a 4-3 double overtime victory against Colgate. In the postseason, Navy defeated Colgate, 2-0 in the Patriot League quarterfinals.

A showdown versus the defending Patriot League Champions, Bucknell (16-2-2, 8-1 PL) on Saturday, Oct. 28 at home rounds out Navy's 2017 regular season schedule. The Bison and Mids played a hard-fought overtime contest in Annapolis in 2016 that saw the visitors net the overtime game-winner 22 seconds into extra time.

The Patriot League Tournament begins on Tuesday, Oct. 31 with quarterfinal action before the semifinals and final are held at the regular season champions home field on Friday, Nov. 3 and Sunday, Nov. 5.

In 2016, Navy posted a 9-11-2 record over 22 games with eight of its contests going into overtime. In league play, the Mids went 4-4-1 to rank fifth overall. With 15 varsity letterwinners returning in the fall, the program will look to get back into the top of the Patriot League standings. The first test for the returning players was a five-game spring exhibition slate this past March and April that saw the Mids come away with a 3-0-2 record with wins over Georgetown, George Mason and UMBC, and ties versus George Washington and Towson.