The Missouri State field hockey team announced its 20-game schedule for the 2008 season, which includes eight home matches at Plaster Field.

Two major road trips include opening the season at Appalachian State Aug. 31, in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Bears will also face Robert Morris, one of the teams that the Bears stole one of their two wins from in the 2007 season. Missouri State will then turn around to face Saint Louis and Indiana Universities four days later in St. Louis before opening the home season against Division III Lindenwood University.

Missouri State picks up their non-conference season with a matches at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. and Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Sophomore defender Liz Grasso will face off against her older sister, Villanova assistant coach Andrea Grasso. The older Grasso sister will start her seventh year as assistant coach after a four-year field hockey career at Delaware.

The Bears open the Mid-American Conference schedule at home against Miami University on Sat., Sept. 27, and Ball State University on Sun., Sept. 28. The conference schedule is briefly interrupted with a trip to Iowa City, Iowa, to face Northwestern University and Iowa University, which finished the 2007 season ranked No. 6 in the STX\NHFCA Division I Coaches Poll, never dropping out of the top 10 all season.

MAC play resumes for the Bears with match-ups against No. 16 Ohio, Kent State, and Central Michigan, two-times each before traveling to Kent, Ohio, for the 2008 MAC Tournament on Nov. 6 through Nov. 8.

The Bears return eight starters from the 2007 season and welcome in an eight-person freshman class. Missouri State finished the 2007 season 2-19, 1-9 in MAC play.