REDS Open 2023 Campaign On Road
(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS will begin the 2023 Atlantic University Sport women’s and men’s soccer seasons with the toughest of tests.
The REDS visit the conference’s defending women’s and men’s champions, the Cape Breton Capers, for their season openers on Saturday, September 2nd.
“It’s a new season, but when you get the reigning champs in game one, it’s a great test right off the bat and allows us to measure ourselves against a quality opponent,” said Jon Crossland, head coach of the REDS’ women’s team. “There are no easy games in the AUS. Cape Breton won’t be looking past us. We’ve had good battles with them over the past few years and it will be a great showcase for AUS soccer.”
The 2023 AUS season opens Friday, September 1st with a pair of double-headers, one at Acadia and one at UPEI.
UNB’s double-header at Cape Breton is one of three on the schedule the next day.
The REDS travel to Antigonish on Sunday, September 3rd, to face the X-Women and X-Men.
UNB will play their home-openers the following weekend, on Saturday, September 9th, when they host Memorial. Those games, at UNB’s BMO Centre, are scheduled to start at 1:00pm and 3:15pm.
UNB will also host double-headers with Acadia (Sept. 16th), UPEI (Sept. 17th), Moncton (Sept. 23rd), the Capers (Oct. 20th) and X (Oct. 21st) while playing other road games at UPEI (Sept. 24th), Saint Mary’s (Sept. 29th), Dalhousie (Sept. 30th) and Mount Allison (Oct. 13th).
“The schedule’s release is always an exciting time for our team,” said Barry Morrison, head coach of the REDS’ men’s team. “It gives us a chance to see what our week-to-week match-ups look like and we can begin setting goals linked to each set of weekend games.”
“We’ve made that trip to Sydney and Antigonish to start the season many times,” said Crossland. “It’s a tough but exciting way to start the season. CBU and X have been top teams in the AUS and our group will be up for those games with the goal of kicking off the season in a positive way.”
As defending conference champs, the Capers will host both the women’s and men’s conference championship tournaments, October 26-29.
Cape Breton will also host the U SPORTS men’s championship tournament, November 9-12, while Queen’s hosts the women’s national championship the same weekend.
STORY BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS: UNB Media Services