The first day of September is the first day of competition for fall sports teams in Division III, and openers are scheduled in field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.

Football follows with a handful of contests Thursday night, including a game involving a member of the new Eastern Collegiate Football Conference.

Defending women’s soccer champion Messiah and 2008 volleyball champion Emory – both ranked No. 1 in preseason rankings – open today. Messiah plays at Stevens Institute of Technology while Emory hosts a Division II opponent, West Georgia.

The Messiah men, who joined with the women to sweep last year’s soccer championships, open Saturday against Gordon under the tutelage of a new coach. Longtime assistant coach Brad McCarty succeeds Dave Brandt, who led Messiah to six Division III Men’s Soccer Championship titles in 12 years before becoming head coach at Division I Navy.

Defending field hockey champion Bowdoin will not take the field until a September 12 contest at Amherst, but five teams ranked in the preseason top 10 in that sport open play today. Two of those squads, third-ranked Ursinus and No. 4 Messiah, have an early-season showdown scheduled Saturday at Messiah.

In football, defending Division III champion Mount Union travels to St. John Fisher to open play Saturday.

However, Division III’s newest single-sport conference and its oldest multisport conference have football games scheduled Thursday night, kicking off a full weekend of gridiron action a couple of days early.

Maritime (New York) will be the first member of the new ECFC to take the field when it plays Massachusetts Maritime. Meanwhile, defending Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion Trine also kicks off Thursday, at Manchester.

The MIAA’s 122nd year of intercollegiate athletics competition begins today with soccer matches involving five league women’s teams and two men’s teams.

On Saturday, the ECFC will feature a matchup of two league members in their first-ever football contests, as Anna Marie travels to Castleton State to play at the Spartans’ brand new football facility.

Fall’s other sports, men’s and women’s cross country, see defending men’s champion Cortland State and women’s titlist Middlebury waiting until September 12 to begin action. However, the North Central men, ranked No. 1 in preseason rankings, run this Friday evening. Calvin’s women, who share top preseason honors with Middlebury, open September 19.

In another noteworthy opener, the Rochester women’s soccer squad begins play today at Brockport State. Rochester’s Terry Gurnett needs just three victories in his 33rd season to become the first Division III coach – and only third in any division – to collect 400 wins in women’s soccer. Only North Carolina’s Anson Dorrance (676 wins) and Connecticut’s Len Tsantiris (463) have more victories.