Sept. 12, 2008

Final Stats

Oklahoma Box Score PDF

Memphis, Tenn. - The Memphis women's soccer team took down the Oklahoma Sooners tonight at Mike Rose Soccer Complex. The final score of the contest was a 3-0 shutout.

Melissa Smith netted her first goal of the season off an assist from Julia Ignacio. Other goal scorers during the contest were Vendula Strnadova on an unassisted play and Lizzy Simonin who scored off a pass ahead from Victoria Dalton. Strnadova's and Simonin's goals were both their second scores on the 2008 season.

Sophomore forward Melissa Smith was happy to get her first goal of 2008 under her belt as she netted the first and deciding goal of the contest.

"It felt great. It was a long time coming," Smith said. "I've been looking forward to it for quite some time. Ever since I got hurt last year when I tore my ACL, all I could think about was getting back in the game and scoring my first goal. It was a great confidence boost for me."

Head coach Brooks Monaghan was pleased with his team's effort tonight coming off of a tough loss to Miami last weekend.

"We talked about the Miami game a lot this week in practice and the kids wanted to get that out of their system and prove to the country that we are a better team than the scoreboard read," Monaghan said. "We played with more intensity tonight. We also played with a lot of discipline as well. The main thing was the difference in intensity that everyone brought to the field. We have to play consistently with that kind of intensity in order to end up on the winning side more than not."

Each Lady Tiger that dressed for the contest saw the field tonight in the victory over Oklahoma. Monaghan was also pleased with the contributions that his reserves made in tonight's game.

"The great thing about tonight was that we got to play everybody," Monaghan noted. "The level of play didn't drop either. We came out with some very high intensity level. Now we're going to have a tough game on Sunday because Colorado is a solid team. It's going to be great test for us."

The Memphis squad will be back in action Sunday, Sept. 14 against the Colorado Buffaloes at 1:00 p.m at Mike Rose Soccer Complex.