Due to their move to The American Athletic Conference, the women’s soccer team will not only see a shift in the regular season schedule, but in the preseason schedule as well.

The new conference scheduling was established this summer, which means Temple will face its exhibition opponents earlier than in previous years.

The Owls arrive on campus for their preseason training camp on Aug. 8, and will face their first exhibition opponent shortly after. In past years, the Owls had close to two weeks before facing an exhibition opponent, but this season, they will face both Wagner (Aug. 14) and Towson (Aug. 17) within the first 10 days of arrival at camp.

“It’s early, but we like it [because] it gives us a more realistic look at where we are,” coach Seamus O’Connor said. “You can practice against each other all you want, but you don’t actually truly find out, until you go against someone different, how the girls are going to respond”.

With the Owls athletic staff viewing an early exhibition schedule as a beneficial alteration, when Wagner was in need of an exhibition match, Temple took advantage of the opportunity to add it to their schedule. The Owls will now face two preseason opponents for the first time ever.

“It was great getting the two friendly scrimmages in so that we can work on stuff against somebody else,” O’Connor said.