HARRISONBURG, Va. (JMU Athletics) – James Madison men’s soccer has unveiled its 2026 slate on Wednesday morning, as announced by Head Coach Paul Zazenski.
The 17-match slate includes matches against five teams who advanced to last season’s NCAA tournament and seven teams in the top 40 of the final RPI.
“The 2026 fall slate is a good blend of in-state and regional non-conference opponents paired with our normal Sun Belt national caliber competition,” said Zazenski. “It’s nice to play a good portion of our slate at home but also challenge ourselves with the likes of Princeton and others on the road. Overall, we feel like this is a positive blend of everything we look for in a schedule. We look forward to getting back to work on the pitch come August.”
The Dukes kick the season off on Aug. 20, hosting Rider before facing Gardner-Webb on Aug. 29 as part of the Fairfield by Marriott Invitational. They then hit the road for three matches, as a trip to New Jersey to face Princeton (Sept. 4) and NJIT (Sept. 7) is preceded by a clash with Radford (Aug. 29).
After the three-match road trip, JMU will return home for a trio of matches. It’ll play Longwood and Liberty on Sept. 11 and Sept. 22, respectively, with its Sun Belt Conference opener sandwiched in between on Sept. 18 against defending champion UCF. A match at Sentara Park on Oct. 6 against Mary Baldwin wraps up the non-conference portion of the schedule.
In addition to hosting UCF at Sentara Park, the Dukes will defend the Valley in Sun Belt play against Coastal Carolina (Oct. 2), Georgia State (Oct. 10) and Kentucky (Oct. 25) before concluding the regular season versus West Virginia (Nov. 3).
JMU will travel to South Carolina (Sept. 27), Georgia Southern (Oct. 17), Marshall (Oct. 21) and Old Dominion (Oct. 30) for its road Sun Belt matches.
The Sun Belt Conference Men’s Soccer Championship will take place Nov. 8-15, as once again the two highest seeds with host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. The higher seed remaining will host the championship match.
Click here to view the entire schedule.
— JMU Athletics —
