VERMILLION, S.D. – The South Dakota soccer team will host 10 games on its home turf of First Bank & Trust Soccer Complex head coach Michael Thomas announced Thursday.
 
South Dakota will face two teams that made the 2020 College Cup and finish the season with the three other teams that made the conference tournament last season.
 
"We're excited for the 2021 schedule," Thomas said. "We believe it's the most challenging during my time here at USD. We're especially looking forward to some of the new teams that we get to bring on to the Vermillion campus."
 
The Coyotes, coming off clinching their second ever birth to the conference tournament, open the 2021 season with two exhibitions against Big Ten foes Iowa (Aug. 7) and Nebraska (Aug. 11). The Yotes will host Briar Cliff (Aug. 15) and Texas Rio-Grande Valley (Aug. 20) in their first games of the regular season.
 
USD will hit the road for four straight road games. First the Yotes travel to face Colorado State (Aug. 26) then head farther west to take on Wyoming (Aug. 29). USD will travel back east to Omaha to face Creighton (Sept. 2) and finish the road trip against Northern Iowa (Sept. 5).
 
After being on the road for most of the nonconference portion of the schedule, the Yotes host their last three nonconference games. On September 9, Drake makes a visit to Vermillion while senior day is set for September 12 as the Yotes take on Northern Iowa for the second time in the season.
 
Capping off the nonconference schedule, the Yotes host Big 12's Iowa State on September 12. It is the first time in the Thomas era the Yotes have hosted a Power Five school and first time since hosting Kansas State in the 2017 season.
 
Starting the conference season, South Dakota faces the newest member of the conference for the second straight season when they take on St. Thomas on October 1 in Vermillion. The Coyotes then host Western Illinois on October 3 before hitting the road for the next two versus Oral Roberts (Oct. 8) and Kansas City (Oct. 10).
 
South Dakota host its final three games of the season when North Dakota (Oct. 15) and North Dakota State (Oct. 17) come to town. The annual South Dakota Showdown series with South Dakota State takes places at First Bank & Trust Complex on October 24.
 
USD closes out its conference season on the road when they face two of the other three teams that made the conference tournament in Denver (Oct. 29) and Omaha (Oct. 31).
 
The 2021 Summit League Tournament is slated for Nov. 4-6 in Denver, Colorado. The top four teams in the league qualify for the tournament to compete for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.