August Means Getting Set for Fall Sports Action at USD

The University of San Diego summer has entered the month of August and that means Torero student-athletes, particularly those who are on fall sports teams, are getting ready for fall camp and the start of their respective 2018 seasons.

Two USD programs, women’s volleyball and football, enter as the defending conference champion and they enter the new year understanding that other teams have circled their meeting with San Diego and will play just that much harder against the Toreros.

Volleyball opens its fall schedule Aug. 24-25 in Seattle against the University of Washington before playing seven nonconference home matches in a row and then hosting St. Mary’s and Pacific on Sept. 20 and 22, respectively, to open West Coast Conference play.

Football, meanwhile, won its sixth Pioneer Football League title in the last seven seasons in 2017 and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs for the season straight year. In 2018, Preseason All-PFL honorees Anthony Lawrence, Zach Nelson, Daniel Cooney and Connor Spencer will lead the Toreros into fall camp. The regular season schedule opens Sept. 1 at 2 p.m. as USD hosts Western New Mexico in Torero Stadium. The PFL opener is Sept. 29 at home against Stetson, also a 2 p.m. kickoff.

Two more fall programs, men and women’s soccer, are ready to build upon a strong foundation this year.

For the women's soccer team, second-year head coach Louise Lieberman hopes to add on to the solid effort her inaugural team showed in 2017. After a competitive nonconference schedule, Toreros finished 6-3 in WCC play, including a four-game win streak to start conference play. The 2018 team hosts Washington State in a 1 p.m. exhibition match on August 10. The regular season schedule officially begins Aug. 17 at Virginia Tech, the first of four straight road matches. The team closes out August at home on the 31st against Utah Valley at 1 p.m. The WCC opener is Sept. 27 in a 7 p.m. home game vs. Pacific.

The men’s soccer team has a new head coach on the sideline as longtime assistant coach Brian Quinn takes over for Seamus McFadden, who chose to retire from the head coaching role after 39 years. The 2018 schedule for Quinn and his team opens Aug. 24 in a 7 p.m. match against UC Irvine at Torero Stadium. USD then plays at UCLA Aug. 28 and a Aug. 31 home game against Duke at 8:30 p.m. West Coast Conference play for the USD men opens Oct. 7 at San Francisco.

The men and women’s cross-country teams are preparing for their 2018 meet schedule, which has not been released just yet. The Toreros, coached by alumnus Will Guarino, will vie for top individual and team times at weekly meets and in the WCC Championships, typically held in late October.

The USD women’s swim and dive program begins competing in meets later during Fall 2018 and it carries over to the spring season with the Toreros as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Furthermore, USD’s other sports programs — rowing, baseball, softball, tennis, golf — compete in fall tournaments, matches to sharpen their student-athletes for the spring season at the turn of the 2019 calendar year. Also, men’s basketball and women’s basketball will begin the winter season in November. Full schedules for all USD sports teams in the 2018-19 year will be released in the near future.

Keep up with all USD Athletics news, scores, schedules and more information by visiting the website. Follow the Toreros on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.