NEWARK, NJ—Women's soccer kicks off the 2014-15 year for NJIT athletics when the Highlanders host Canisius at 7 pm Friday on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
The Highlander women are the first of NJIT's 20 intercollegiate teams to play an official competition in the new academic year.
 
For its own part, women's soccer will face a 2014 slate of 17 regular season games, plus a season-ending tournament for NCAA Division I Independents to be played at Delaware State in Dover on October 31 and November 2.
 
Canisius, which comes in from Buffalo, NY, for Friday night's season opener, competes as a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Last season the Golden Griffins posted a 6-14-1 record overall, including 3-7 in the MAAC.
 
The Canisius match is part of an early schedule that will find the Highlanders at home in five of the first seven contests.
 
Two days after hosting Canisius, NJIT will welcome Hartford of the America East Conference to campus for a 1 pm contest on Sunday.
 
At the end of August, NJIT travels to Charleston, SC, for a tournament matchup vs. two Charleston sides, Charleston Southern (August 29) and The Citadel (August 31).
 
The Highlanders come back to Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium for the next three matches, entertaining three more MAAC foes--Monmouth (Sept. 4), Manhattan (Sept. 7), and Saint Peter's (Sept. 10).
 
Monmouth , long a powerhouse in the state and region, had one of its best seasons ever in 2013, finishing 17-2-2 overall and 8-0-2 in its first year as a member of the MAAC after years as the marquee women's soccer program of the Northeast Conference. The Hawks rolled to three shutout victories in the MAAC postseason tournament and finally ended their season in the NCAAs with a loss at Penn State.
 
Later on in 2014, NJIT will take on two more MAAC schools on the road (Sept. 14 at Rider; Sept. 19 at Iona), bringing the number of Highlander opponents from the MAAC to six.
 
The Highlanders will take on three foes from the Northeast Conference, with road games at LIU-Brooklyn and Central Connecticut to go with a home contest vs. Fairleigh Dickinson on September 28 at 1 pm. In addition to Hartford from the America East, NJIT will visit UAlbany from that conference.
 
Columbia (October 12; 1 pm) and Cornell (October 19; 1 pm) will represent the Ivy League in visits to Newark to face NJIT. And long-time foe Delaware State (October 10; 7 pm; Senior Night) is back on the home schedule for 2014. The Highlanders will visit Lafayette of the Patriot League on October 15.
 
The 2014 season will be NJIT's second as a Division I Independent since the old Great West Conference ceased operation on July 1, 2013.
 
A year ago, in 2013, NJIT finished 8-10-1, posting six shutouts in the process. Both the eight wins and six shutouts were new program records at the Division I level. The old DI high for wins had been seven (7-9-2 in 2009) and the eight wins matched the overall program standard, set in an 8-6-3 record at the NCAA Division II level in 2005.
 
The strength of the 2013 Highlanders and likely again for 2014 was the defense from the goal line out. Now a junior, goalkeeper Samantha Bersett was between the posts for every minute, notching the program-best six shutouts and raising her two-year career total to 10 clean sheets.
 
In the field, Kaelyn Gamel, Madeline Griep, Jenny Cislo, and Jamee Simone are all back after starting all 19 games in 2013. Alex Adam missed some action, but she started all 16 games in which she appeared. Danielle Pierce was limited to 13 games a year ago, but her career line in two years is 33 games played, 33 games started.
 
NJIT, which is looking to score more goals, returns all three players who netted three goals each in 2013. They are Rebecca Tustin, Carly Berdan, and Abi Fakolujo. Berdan is a sophomore, Fakolujo is a junior and Tustin is a fifth-year senior, having been an injury redshirt in 2011.
 
One of the more promising prospects in the Division I era when she joined NJIT as a freshman, Tustin's career was sidetracked by a severe knee injury. However, in 2013, two years removed from surgery, she began an upward trajectory in a career that still has a season to go.
 
On the sidelines, Mandi Risden begins her second season as head coach after a 13-year run as an assistant coach in Division I at Rutgers, Brown, and NJIT (2008 to 2012). Joining her is new top assistant Scott Waddell, who spent the previous four seasons as an assistant coach at Columbia. Volunteer coach Tim Verschuren is back for his second season.