STANFORD, Calif.- Head coach Lesley Irvine has announced the 2008 Stanford field hockey schedule, which includes contests against three NCAA Tournament squads from a year ago.

The 16-game regular-season schedule features six home contests, beginning with the season opener against Drexel on Aug. 30. The Cardinal will be opening the year on its home turf for the eighth consecutive season.

Prior to the match against Drexel, Stanford will host three scrimmages (Aug. 19 vs. Pacific, Aug. 23 vs. California and Aug. 27 vs. University of Victoria).

Stanford will face arguably its most challenging stretch of the year with a three-game road swing during the first week of September. The Cardinal starts the trip at Michigan State on Sept. 3, facing a Spartan squad that returns 16 letterwinners from last year's team which finished 16-6 overall and earned its fifth NCAA Tournament bid in seven seasons. Michigan State ended the year with a No. 7 final national ranking.

Two days later, Stanford travels to Ann Arbor for a matchup against Michigan. The Wolverines posted a 16-7 record last year, reached the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in program history and captured the Big Ten regular-season title.

The road trip concludes on Sept. 7 against Central Michigan, with that match to be played in Ann Arbor.

Stanford returns home to host Iowa on Sept. 13 and Albany on Sept. 14, representing the only stretch of the schedule in which the Cardinal plays back-to-back games at home.

Making its first appearance on The Farm since 2005, Iowa finished 17-4 overall last year and claimed the Big Ten Tournament championship with a 4-1 victory over Michigan.

NorPac conference play kicks off with a road game at Appalachian State on Sept. 17, followed by neutral site matches against Radford and Longwood to be played in Davidson, N.C.

The Cardinal hosts Pacific on Sept. 27 in a match that will not count in the NorPac standings. The two clubs will meet one month later on Oct. 26 in Stockton, Calif., with that result factoring into league records.

The month of October begins with a quick road trip to the East Coast, as Stanford squares off against Northeastern on Oct. 4 and Holy Cross on Oct. 6.

After hosting Davidson in a conference match on Oct. 14, the Cardinal meets up with rival California in Berkeley for the first time before its rematch against Pacific.

The regular-season finale will be played at home, with Stanford hosting California on Senior Day in a match that will count in the NorPac standings. Stanford and California both finished 5-1 last year in league play to earn a share of the conference regular-season title, however the Cardinal secured a 3-1 victory in the NorPac Tournament championship game to snap a 18-match losing streak in the all-time series.

Stanford is coming off one of the best years in school history, recording its first winning season in six years at 13-8 overall. The 13 victories rank second all-time in program history and the Cardinal advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. Led by NorPac Coach of the Year Lesley Irvine and a pair of First Team West Regional All-Americans in Xanthe Travlos and Jess Zutz, Stanford cracked the national rankings for the first time since 2001 and defeated California to claim the NorPac Tournament title.