Aug. 14, 2008

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Bowling Green, Ky. - The University of Memphis women's soccer team wrapped up its preseason games Thursday afternoon against Western Kentucky. Coming off a defeat to the hands of preseason No. 5 Notre Dame on Tuesday night, the Lady Tigers were looking to bounce back for their first win of the '08 season in Bowling Green Ky. this afternoon.

Last season Memphis and Western Kentucky faced off in an exhibition match as well. At the end of regulation the score was 0-0. In the overtime period freshman Vendula Strnadova netted the game winning goal with 1:55 left in the extra session to give the Lady Tigers and exhibition victory.

Today's final exhibition game kicked off at 1:00 p.m. After 90 minutes of play, the two teams had ironically finished regulation once again in a 0-0 deadlock. The decision was made not continue to an overtime period and the game simply ended in a scoreless tie.

Defense was the name of the game today as there were only seven shots on goal in total for both sides. Both defenses held strong giving the offenses minimal scoring opportunities. Goalkeeper Elise Kuhar Pitters played all 90 minutes in goal for the Lady Tigers and saved all four shots that came her way.

Head coach Brooks Monaghan commented on his team’s performance up to this point of preseason.

“I was definitely pleased with most of our performance thus far this season, but a little displeased about today,” Monaghan said. “There were too many mental errors today that we have to correct, but overall it was a great road trip for us. We always want to be tested in preseason because that's how you learn about what you need to work on, and the great thing about these two games was that they really tested us.”

Even as the Lady Tigers wrapped up a winless preseason, the Memphis coaching staff is very positive because now have two solid performances to draw evaluations from. Monaghan talked about how his team can take their preseason performance and apply it to improve their play in the regular season.

“You don't win championships by winning in preseason, you win with what you take from the preseason and we will take a lot out of these games and turn them in to positives,” Monaghan noted.

The Lady Tigers now have a full week without a game and the head soccer coach plans to use every bit of it to fine tune his soccer team.

“These two games were fantastic for us in regards to using them as an evaluation of our team,” Monaghan stated. “Although our exhibition games are finished, it’s still early in the preseason and there are certain individuals who stand out. As a team we're where we want to be, but we still need to get everybody on the same page. We'll be a very good in time. We don't expect perfection right now, but we have a very good and talented group and we still have a week to get prepared for first game. This week we have quite a bit of time to correct several things because we have two practices per day during that time."

Coach Monaghan is looking forward to putting what they learn this week in to action as his team moves in to the regular season.

“We’re confident we'll get there. Everything we saw through this week was very fixable and now its time to put the players on the field for the regular season that we have confidence in.”

Memphis finishes up the exhibition season with a record of 0-1-1 and will take the field next Friday, Aug. 22 for their first regular season match against Arkansas-Little Rock at 5:30 p.m. at Mike Rose Stadium.