– Reigning Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Yearreleased the Eastern Kentucky University soccer team's 2017 schedule on Tuesday.The defending OVC regular season champion Colonels will host Marshall (August 9) and Indiana State (August 12) in exhibitions, before opening the regular season with five consecutive road matches.EKU will face a challenge immediately, playing its opener at defending Horizon League Tournament champion Northern Kentucky the night of Friday, August 18. The Colonels defeated the Norse, 2-0, last August in Richmond, setting off a school-record string of eight consecutive victories. NKU went on to finish the season 13-7-1 (6-2-1), win the Horizon League Tournament and face national runner-up West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.Two days later, the Colonels will travel down to Chattanooga to face the Chattanooga Mocs. Eastern also blanked UTC, 1-0, in Richmond last September, winning on a goal byin the sixth minute.On August 24, EKU will travel up I-75 to face Kentucky. The Colonels then head to Indianapolis to face IUPUI on August 27 and to Cincinnati to square off against Xavier on September 1.Eastern will play its regular season home opener against Gardner-Webb on Friday, September 8. It is the first of six consecutive home games at EKU Soccer Field, spanning nearly the entire month of September.The Colonels host East Tennessee State on September 12. ETSU went 13-6-2 (6-2-1) and was the SoCon Tournament runner-up in 2016.EKU opens OVC action with a home game against Austin Peay on September 15. The Govs dealt the Colonels one of their two conference losses last season, scoring the game-winner in the 88minute in Clarksville.Eastern then makes a brief return to non-conference play by hosting VMI on Sunday, September 17. The Colonels defeated the Keydets, 2-0, last year in Lexington, Virginia.OVC foes UT Martin (September 22), Southeast Missouri (September 24), Murray State (October 5) and Belmont (October 22) will visit EKU Soccer Field in 2017.The Colonels will wrap up the regular season at in-state rival Morehead State on the night of Thursday, October 26.The OVC Tournament is set to be contested October 29 – November 5.EKU returns plenty of firepower from a team that completed the largest turnaround in the NCAA last year. After going 4-14 in 2015, the Colonels stunned the league by going 13-5-1 (8-2-0) in 2016 and winning a share of the program's first-ever OVC regular season title.Foster, a first-team All-OVC forward, and, a second team All-OVC goalkeeper, are back to lead Eastern in 2017.