AMHERST, Mass. - UMass field hockey head coach Justine Sowry has announced the release of the Minutewomen's 2009 schedule. The two-time defending Atlantic 10 champions will play a challenging 20-game schedule that includes five NCAA Tournament teams from last season, including two of the Final Four teams in Iowa and Syracuse. UMass will also host the A-10 Championship for the first times since 2004.

UMass, with 21 all-time NCAA berths, will play four of the top-six ranked teams in the final STX/NFHCA Poll in 2008 and 13 teams that were either ranked or receiving votes at some point in the season.

The Minutewomen will open the season with three home games at Garber Field. The season opener will be on Saturday, Aug. 29 against Providence at 1 p.m. The following weekend, UMass hosts the first UMass Invitational at Garber Field. The four-team field starts things off on Sept. 4 when UMass plays Boston University at 2 p.m. The following day at 2 p.m., UMass will take on perennial national power Iowa. The Terriers and Hawkeyes will square off on Sept 6 at 1 p.m.

Sowry, the 2007 and 2008 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and 2008 Northeast Region Coach of the Year, then takes her team on the road for a pair of games against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago. On Sept. 11, UMass visits Albany to take on the Great Danes, and on the following day play James Madison in Albany.

After the Albany road trip, its back home to host two in-state rivals, Northeastern on Sept 19 at 2 p.m. and Boston College on Sept. 20 at 3 p.m.

After road games at Vermont and Quinnipiac on Sept. 27 and 28, UMass will travel to Syracuse to take on the Orange, in a rematch of the NCAA Tournament game at Coyne Stadium in which the Orange ended the Minutewomen's season in a hard-fought 3-2 game.

The Minutewomen return home to host Yale on Oct 4 at 3 p.m. before going on a season-long four-game roadtrip with games at Harvard (10/6) and UConn (10/9), as well as A-10 foes Saint Joseph's (10/16) and Temple (10/18).

After that, UMass travels to St. Louis for a 2 p.m. game on Oct. 25 against the Billikens before returning home for three home games to close the regular season. On Oct. 28, Dartmouth visits Garber Field for a 5 p.m. game, followed by a 3 p.m. game against La Salle on Oct. 30. The regular season concludes on Nov. 1 at noon vs. West Chester on what will be Senior Day at Garber Field.

UMass hosts the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time since 2004 on Nov. 7-8, where it will look for its third-straight and 12 overall conference title.

A potential NCAA Tournament play-in game would be played on Nov. 11.