REDLANDS, Calif. - The University of Redlands men's soccer program will begin the Alex Ortega era with a non-conference game against Whittier College at home on Farquhar Field on September 1.
The game against the Poets is the first of 17 regular season games and one of 10 occurring at home. Overall, they will be at home for four of their five non-conference games and will have six home and six road games inside Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play.
Redlands own a commanding 36-6-2 all-time record against the Poets. Last year Whittier salvaged a 3-3 draw at Farquhar Field on October 11 before Redlands answered with a 3-1 road win on October 18, powered by a Zachary Darmanyan hat trick. Redlands and Whittier meet for the second time, the first and only in SCIAC play, on October 10 in Whittier. The Poets were in first place for an extended period in 2025 before falling to sixth with a 4-4-4 record and a 10-4-4 overall record.
Following the Whittier game the Bulldogs host Nelson University (Arizona) on September 3. The Warriors, a non-NCAA opponent, went 8-7-3 last fall. The two programs have never met.
Game three of four at home to begin the season comes on September 11 when the Bulldogs host Emory University. The perennial national title contenders were 16-2-4 in 2025 and made it to the NCAA Semifinals where they lost in overtime, 1-0, against Trinity University (Texas). This will also be the first-ever meeting between the two programs, giving Redlands an early measuring-stick game against one of Division III's national powers.
The next day, on September 12, the Tigers of Colorado College who lost only once last fall, finishing 12-1-6, will home down to Farquhar Field. Their season ended in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship game. The programs have met only once, which was a 2-1 Redlands win at home on September 5, 2015.
Redlands' first road game will be a short drive away in Azusa on September 16 when they play new SCIAC member Azusa Pacific University (APU) in a non-conference game. The Cougars were 5-8-4 last season in their final season as an NCAA Division II member. The two sides have met once before, back in 2009, with APU taking a 3-0 win.
SCIAC's 12-game schedule begins September 19 at home against the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Beavers had one of their best seasons on record in 2025, going 7-9-1 overall and 4-7-1 in SCIAC play, which placed them seventh in the final conference standings, only five points outside the fifth and final SCIAC Tournament position. Redlands' dominance here is as lopsided as it gets posting a 42-1 all-time record in the series — the Bulldogs had never lost to the Beavers until Caltech finally broke through with a 3-1 road win this past September. Redlands answered a month later with a 2-1 win at home on October 22 and still holds a 9-1 record across the last 10 meetings.
On September 23 the University of La Verne (ULV) comes to Farquhar Field. The Bulldogs will end the regular season with a trip west to the Leopards on October 31. ULV took the final SCIAC Tournament spot with a 5-4-3 record in 2025. They finished 8-7-5 overall and lost in the SCIAC Tournament Semifinal at Occidental College following an upset over No. 4 Chapman University. Few series have been more one-sided than this one but the Maroon and Grey own a 35-7-3 record over the Leos dating back to 2002. Redlands has won 9 of the last 10 meetings, including a 2-1 road win last September and once reeled off a 10-game win streak against the Leopards from 2007 to 2011.
The lone matchup with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) will come on the road on September 26. After multiple highly successful seasons, including advancing in the NCAA Championships, the Stags struggled to a 4-10-6 overall record and an eighth-place SCIAC finish at 3-5-4 in 2025. The series was split last season but the U of R owns a 33-15-6 advantage in the series. Last year CMS won 2-0 at Farquhar Field on September 27 before Redlands closed the year out with a 2-1 road win in Claremont on October 29.
At home on September 30 the Kingsmen of California Lutheran University (CLU) play the Bulldogs. CLU was at the bottom of the standings at 1-6-5 and finished 2-10-5 overall last fall. Redlands has just three losses to CLU in the series posting a 34-3-9 all-time record dating back to 2002. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in Thousand Oaks last October before Redlands won 2-1 at home coming on Senior Night in November — a result that clinched a share of the SCIAC regular season title in Ralph Perez's final regular-season game as head coach.
Game one of two in October against Occidental will come on the road, October 3. The home matchup comes on the 21st. The Tigers and Bulldogs were joint regular season champions at 6-3-3 in 2025. Occidental then won the SCIAC Tournament title over Redlands to advance to the NCAA Championships where they lost in the first round, 3-1, against Augsburg University. The Tigers got the better of Redlands twice last season, a 3-0 win at Farquhar Field on October 4 and a 1-0 win in the SCIAC Tournament Championship Game on November 8 in Los Angeles — the game that ended Perez's 19-year tenure as head coach. Despite that, Redlands still holds a commanding all-time edge in the series, 36-9-2.
A rejuvenated Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) program went from finishing last in 2024 to third in 2025. They were 6-4-2 in SCIAC, missing a share of the regular season title by just one point. The Sagehens' season ended in the semifinal of the SCIAC Tournament when the Bulldogs eliminated them. P-P comes to Farquhar on October 7 and hosts the U of R on the 24th. The two sides played to a pair of 2-2 draws in both their regular-season meetings last year — once at Farquhar Field in the non-conference opener and once in Claremont — before Redlands broke through with a 2-1 win in the SCIAC Tournament Semifinal on November 6. That gave the Bulldogs a 4-1 record against the Sagehens in SCIAC Tournament history, part of an overall postseason mark of 15-9-2 across a conference-best 16 tournament appearances. Overall the Bulldogs have a dominant 34-9-7 record all-time against the Sagehens.
Games four and seven of October will be against Chapman. On the 14th the Panthers host and on the 28th the Bulldogs have hosting duties. Chapman finished fourth in the regular season at 5-4-3 and were 6-7-4 overall. They lost to ULV in the SCIAC Tournament First Round. Redlands enters with a bit of momentum here against the Panthers, having won the lone meeting last season 2-1 at Farquhar Field on October 15. Overall the Bulldogs hold a 22-10-2 record all-time against Chapman, currently riding a six-game winning streak.
The last non-conference game on the schedule will be against the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz occurring at home on October 16. Their most recent meeting came last September when Redlands won 3-1 at Farquhar Field. Historically this series has been a physical match-up but the Bulldogs own a 14-3-4 all-time record dating back to 2002 and currently own a 14-0-3 record across their last 17 match-ups.
At the conclusion of the regular season the top five teams in SCIAC will advance to the tournament. The number four and five teams play a first-round game with the winner advancing to play at the No. 1 seed. The No. 2 and 3 seeds play with the winner advancing to face the winner of the other semifinal in the championship game. The tournament champion earns SCIAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Championships.
