Sept. 19, 2008

Complete Women's Soccer Notebook and Statistics in PDF Format

In the final weekend before Conference USA play begins, 11 women's soccer teams have important non-conference matches scheduled. UCF, who debuted in this week's Soccer America Top 25 at No. 18, will host No. 21 Kansas tonight. Rice hosts a pair of games, moving up the start time of today's match with McNeese State to 4 p.m., then the Owls host No. 8 Texas A&M for a Sunday (Sept. 21) match that will be nationally-televised by CBS College Sports.

No. 23 Colorado College has a tough road trip this weekend with matches at Illinois and No. 28 Purdue. SMU, coming off a match with then-No. 2 and now top-ranked Notre Dame last weekend, will play at No. 4 USC Sunday afternoon.

UTEP hosts the Border Shootout, with contests against Air Force and Northern Colorado scheduled for Friday and Sunday, respectively. East Carolina and Southern Miss both host Sunday matches and both teams come off mid-week shutout wins.

Houston and Marshall play a pair of road games, while Memphis and UAB are away from home for one more to close out the non-conference portion of the regular season. Tulsa has already concluded its non-conference slate with a 5-3-1 record. The Golden Hurricane is idle this weekend.

C-USA PAIR MAKE DEBUT IN SOCCER AMERICA TOP 25
Both UCF (No. 18) and Colorado College (No. 23) are ranked in the latest Soccer America Top 25 poll. UCF defeated No. 18 Illinois, 2-0, Sunday for the Knights second win over a Top 20 team this season (UCF also beat No. 19 Florida on Aug. 29). UCF is 12-0-4 in its last 16 home matches with its last loss coming Oct. 6, 2006, against Memphis. That is actually the Knights highest ranked since 1992 when they finished No. 16 in the final NSCAA coaches poll.

Colorado College knocked off No. 22 Denver, 2-1, in a double-overtime victory in the first round of the Air Force Academy Falcon Invitational. CC's Kelly LaVoie scored the golden goal for the Tigers in the 103rd minute. After a 3-0 win over Army, the Tigers remained unbeaten at 6-0-1 this season and took the No. 23 position in the Soccer America poll. CC was also ranked No. 26 in the Soccer Buzz poll for the first time in school history.

TELEVISION TIME
Sunday's match between host Rice and the No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies will be televised by CBS College Sports. Start time is scheduled for 1 p.m. EDT and Noon locally. A complete schedule of all televised C-USA women's soccer is on page 3 of this notebook.

UAB WINS TOURNAMENT TITLE
UAB earned a 1-0 victory against cross-town foe Samford on the final day of the UAB Nike Classic tournament Sunday afternoon at West Campus Field. After topping Wright State 1-0 Friday, the Blazers claimed the tournament title. UAB and Samford were both scoreless until the 86th minute when freshman F Tiffini Turpin knocked in the first goal of her career. Turpin's goal was assisted by junior F Danya Barsalona, who nabbed a game-high seven shots on the day, including five shots on goal, and was named Co-MVP of the Nike Classic. Sophomore GK Kate Blankenship earned the win in goal for the Blazers, grabbing seven saves and recording the shutout for UAB.

BEST START FOR BENNETT
Colorado College improved its unbeaten streak to seven matches with a 3-0 shutout of Army on Sunday. The 6-0-1 record is the Tigers' best start in the five seasons head coach Geoff Bennett has been at the helm.

SHOOTING STARS

East Carolina shutout Gardner-Webb on Thursday night to improve to 5-2 on the year. Freshman Amanda Malkiewicz put forth the first threat on the Gardner-Webb net and cashed in off an assist from senior Blair Heffner. Almost exactly 20 minutes later, Malkiewicz took a run down the left side and slid the ball to freshman Leah Bagonis, who found sophomore Jessica Cunningham all alone in the box. Cunningham then took a nice touch past the keeper and slotted the ball into the open net for the second goal.

In Southern Miss' 1-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State, senior Sarah McFadden scored the game's only goal in the 52nd minute as she converted a penalty kick. Amy Skeet picked up the hard foul inside the box to allow McFadden the opportunity to convert the penalty kick.

Melissa Smith of Memphis, who injured her knee last season and had surgery over the summer, netted a pair of goals over the weekend. Her first goal of the season was off an assist from Julia Ignacio, and teammates Vendula Strnadova and Lizzy Simonin added goals in the Tigers' 3-0 shutout of Oklahoma on Sept. 12. She also scored the lone Tiger goal in a 2-1 loss to Colorado Sunday.

Rice junior Erin Scott broke a scoreless tie in the 50th minute, but TCU remained undefeated when the game winner was scored less than two minutes remaining in double overtime to defeat the Owls, 2-1.

SMU faced the now-No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Sept. 12 and has another challenging weekend in store with road contests at Cal-State Fullerton, who just dropped out of the Top 25, and No. 4 USC.