NAMPA, Idaho -- The Northwest Nazarene men’s lacrosse program released its 12-game schedule that should prepare them for the 2020 postseason.

The schedule feature four games against conference opponents: College of Idaho, Pacific Lutheran, Southern Oregon, and Western Oregon. In addition, the Nighthawks will play a tough non-conference schedule that will include Montana, Utah State, UC Davis and Sierra Nevada.

“We have our work cut out for us” said NNU coach Tom Blanchard. “We understand that the road ahead of us is not going to be easy, we know we have a lot of work to do to build a competitive program, but we aren’t shying away from that work.

"We talk to our players daily about having to go out and earn the respect of our community, our opponents and our conference and we think the first step in doing that is by scheduling games with top caliber teams like we have done this upcoming spring.”

The Nighthawks will open their season at home against PNCLL Division I opponent Washington State on Saturday, Feb. 12. This will be the start of a six-game home stand that will see Idaho (Feb. 18), Puget Sound (Feb. 19), Western Oregon (March 5), Humboldt State (March 11) and Pacific Lutheran (March 12) all traveling to Nampa.

The second half of the season will be the toughest stretch of the year for the Nighthawks as they have away games at Utah State (March 25), Montana (April 1) and a road trip to Reno for back-to-back games against Sierra Nevada (March 15) and UC Davis (March 16).

The Nighthawks will have just one home game in the back half of their schedule, which will come against Southern Oregon on April 9.

2022 Northwest Nazarene Men's Lacrosse Schedule

* - indicates PNCLL South subdivision contest
# - indicates contest played in Reno, Nev.