GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Purdue at Loyola (Preseason Exhibition)
Wednesday, Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. ET
Loyola Soccer Park / Chicago, Illinois
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Just under a week into its preseason training camp, Purdue women's soccer has traveled to Chicago's North Side for a Wednesday evening exhibition game at Loyola.
Kickoff at the Loyola Soccer Park in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood is set for 6 p.m. ET. As is the case with Northwestern's new-look Martin Stadium located about six miles north in Evanston, which Purdue will play at during the opening weekend of Big Ten Conference play in mid-September, the Loyola Soccer Park also features an artificial FieldTurf playing surface.
The Boilermakers kicked off their season last fall with an exhibition win on artificial turf not far from the Lake Michigan lakefront. Maddy Williams' hat trick in the opening 22 minutes of the game highlighted Purdue's 4-0 win at Milwaukee on Aug. 11, 2015. Including the spring season, the Boilermakers have compiled a 9-3 record in exhibition games since Drew Roff became the head coach of the program in December 2014. That mark includes a 6-1 win vs. the Ramblers in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center back in February.
Roff and his staff are familiar with Loyola, which made the move from the Horizon League to the Missouri Valley Conference in time for the 2012-13 school year. Roff's Illinois State teams were 3-0 against the Ramblers as conference rivals, highlighted by a 2014 overtime win in Chicago in which current Boilermaker Dagny Olson scored the golden goal.
Purdue has not played Loyola in regular-season action since posting a 5-2 win in a high-scoring non-conference game late in the 2009 season.
The Boilermakers have 11 Illinois natives on their roster, including nine from the Chicagoland area. Senior goalkeeper Jordan Ginther also graduated from a Chicago-area high school before her family moved to Minnesota. Five of the nine members of Purdue's freshman class are Chicagoland natives.
Loyola reached the championship game of the MVC Tournament a year ago, losing on penalty kicks to Evansville after the teams played to scoreless draw. The Ramblers reached the title game as the No. 5 seed via an opening-round victory at Illinois State and an upset of top-seeded Drake in the semifinals. Primary goalkeeper Maddie Ford and leading goal scorers Jenna Szczesny and Avalon Senn-Raemont (five apiece) are all back this year. Loyola lost to Milwaukee 3-1 Wednesday in the exhibition opener for both teams.
Unfortunately, there will be no live coverage of Wednesday's game made available by Loyola. A full recap and box score will be posted at PurdueSports.com after the game.
The Boilermakers will host Miami (Ohio) in exhibition action for the second year in a row. That home game is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. The regular season kicks off Aug. 19 with a doubleheader at Folk Field featuring Montana and Oakland in the first game followed by Purdue and Marshall in the nightcap.