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When the Women’s Premier Soccer League announced a conference realignment during the leauge’s annual meeting last month in Las Vegas, Columbus Eagles CEO Mark Wise breathed a sigh of relief.
Last year, Wise and his club had a unique schedule which saw them play its entire home schedule in the first few weeks of the season. Columbus played the rest of its schedule on the road with lengthy road trips to St. Louis and Indianapolis. The Eagles concluded the season with a brutal weekend series that saw Columbus play in Cincinnati and Cleveland on consecutive days.
This year’s schedule is much kinder to the Eagles, who remain in the Valley division of the WPSL. Columbus’ division is expanded and now includes teams from five states: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.
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Given the expansion of the Valley division, each team will play each other once during the season. The top team in the division advances to the regional playoff round.
On Friday, the league released the 2018 schedule.
Full Columbus Eagles Regular Season Schedule (home games in bold)
Date Opponent Time
April 7th Ohio Wesleyan University 7pm*
April 14th Mount Vernon Nazarene University 7pm*
April 22nd Ohio Dominican University 7pm*
May 12th Ann Arbor FC 7pm
May 19th Cincinnati Sirens FC 7pm
May 27th Cleveland Ambassadors 6pm
June 3rd Motor City FC 7pm
June 10th FC Pride 4pm
June 16th Empire United 4pm
June 30th Indy Saints FC 2pm
July 8th Steel City FC 4pm
* Denotes preseason match
The Eagles look to surpass a franchise-best finish from 2017, going 3-4-1 in the Valley division and set records for wins, points, goals scored and fewest goals conceded.