Syracuse, N.Y. – The Le Moyne College men's soccer team will play its first Division I regular season game on Sunday, August 27 in Happy Valley, taking on the Penn State Nittany Lions, the 2021 champions of the Big Ten Conference, as the team's full schedule was announced on Friday afternoon.

The Dolphins' matchup at State College will kick off a 16-game slate, which includes eight Northeast Conference contests.

After Penn State, the Dolphins will travel to New Jersey to challenge Saint Peter's of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on August 31, before taking on Patriot League side Lafayette in Pennsylvania on September 5.

The 'Phins will head back to New Jersey on September 12 for a clash with Monmouth, which competes in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).

Le Moyne will play its home opener on September 17 against the Lindenwood Lions of the Ohio Valley Conference, before traveling to Delaware on September 19 for a tilt against the Fightin' Blue Hens.

They return home for their Northeast Conference opener against a familiar foe, the Stonehill Skyhawks on September 24.

The 'Phins will travel to Buffalo on September 27 for a matchup with the Canisius Golden Griffins, then they will play two NEC games on the road against Central Connecticut State (October 1) and the FDU Knights (October 5), who claimed the NEC Championship in 2022.

They will play their final non-conference game of the regular season on Wednesday, October 11 at CAA side Stony Brook.

Le Moyne will play two consecutive conference home games against Saint Francis (October 15) and former NE10 for Merrimack (October 19), followed by two NEC road games at Howard (October 22) and LIU (October 29).

The Dolphins will close out the regular season with a home game against Sacred Heart on November 2 on Ted Grant Field.

As announced on June 15, the NEC Presidents' Council unanimously voted to eliminate access restrictions to NEC postseason championships during an institution's transition to Division I, making the Dolphins immediately eligible to compete for a conference championship in 2023.

Six out of nine NEC squads will qualify for the men's soccer Northeast Conference Championship, with the top two seeds receiving a first round bye. The first round of the postseason tournament will play out on November 5, the semifinals on the 9th, with the title game scheduled for November 12.

Following the retirement of Tom Bonus, who compiled a record of 249-136-37 in 22 seasons as the Le Moyne men's soccer head coach, the Dolphins will be led by interim head coach Callum Donnelly '17, M '21, who repped the Green and Gold for two seasons as a player before spending the last four years as an assistant coach on Bonus' staff.

Donnelly played over 2,500 minutes as a box-to-box midfielder during his two seasons with the Dolphins, and has been an integral part of the coaching staff during the last three seasons, which included two 10-win campaigns, followed by a run to the Northeast-10 Conference Championship game in 2022.

The Dolphins will return three 2022 NE10 All-Conference honorees in redshirt junior defender Jack Goodrich, who registered two goals and two assists in a team-high 1,579 minutes played last season; graduate center back Ben Quigley, who saw 1,562 minutes of action in 2022; and sophomore Cameron Stuart, who led the Dolphins in points with six goals and four assists during his rookie campaign last season.

In total, the 'Phins return 15 players from the 2022 squad and have added nine new members to the team.