KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan women's soccer program announced its 2024 schedule today, with the action kicking off on Aug. 6. 

The Broncos will open with a pair of exhibition contests against Notre Dame (Aug. 6) and Northwestern (Aug. 10). Notre Dame will come to Kalamazoo, while WMU will go to Evanston to square off with the Wildcats. 

To begin the regular season, the Brown and Gold will have a trio of home games against Northern Kentucky (Aug. 15), Iowa (Aug. 22) and Marquette (Aug. 25). The Broncos shutout Northern Kentucky in Highland Heights, KY last season. 

Following that stretch of home games, Western Michigan will hit the road for five straight games away from the WMU Soccer Complex. That run starts with a game against Creighton on Aug. 29. WMU is 0-1-1 all-time against the Bluejays. Then, WMU will travel to Madison to square off with the Badgers of Wisconsin on Sept. 1. 

The Brown and Gold will then travel to Detroit (Sept. 8) and DePaul (Sept. 15). WMU is 1-1 all-time at DePaul and is 2-0-1 against Detroit over the last three meetings. The Broncos will then open MAC play on the road with a game against Ohio. 

After that daunting road trip, Western Michigan returns home for a pair of conference games against Miami (Sept. 22) and Buffalo (Sept. 26). The Broncos outscored those two opponents by a combined score of 5-1 in a pair of victories last season. Those two home games are followed by two road games at Central Michigan (Sept. 29) and Kent State (Oct. 6). Western Michigan also beat both of those teams during the regular season last year. 

Two of the next three games for the Broncos will be back in Kalamazoo, with Bowling Green coming to town on Oct. 10. The two teams played to a draw last season. WMU heads to Eastern Michigan on Oct. 13 before returning home to host Akron on Oct. 17. WMU's final road game of the season will be at Toledo on Oct. 24. 

To close out the regular season, Ball State (Oct. 27) and Northern Illinois (Oct. 31) come to Kalamazoo. Western Michigan shutout NIU and tied with Ball State in 2023. Following the regular season, the MAC Tournament will kick off on Nov. 3. After the quarterfinal round, the MAC Semifinals will take place on Nov. 7. The conference championship game is set for Nov. 10. 

Western Michigan is the defending regular season champion and was just the fifth team in MAC history to have an undefeated conference record. The Broncos return a wealth of talent from last year's team, including Defensive Player of the Year Mira Pierre-Webster and Goalkeeper of the Year Lauren Boafo. Along with them, All-MAC performers Jen Blitchok, Jenna Blackburn, Brielle Gomez and Abby Werthman are back in Kalamazoo for another run.