Sept. 30, 2005

Box Score

Memphis, Tenn. - After being shutout for the first time this year last Sunday, the Memphis women's soccer team bounced back in a big way with a 6-0 win over Tulane in its Conference USA opener on Friday. Shoko Mikami recorded her second hat trick of the year and second in the last three games while senior defender Courtnee Melton scored her first career goal. Memphis scored four goals in just over a seven minute span in the second half to put the game away. The Tigers improve to 7-3 overall with the win and 1-0 in C-USA play.

Mikami got the scoring started just 7:29 into the game when, after knocking a shot off the post and out earlier, she clanked one in off the post for her 10th goal of the year. Kate Murphy and Kylie Hayes assisted on the play. Murphy served a ball to Hayes down the left side and Hayes then dribbled toward the goal before crossing it to Mikami, who shot it off both Tulane keeper Megan Morey and the right post before it went in. It was Murphy's third assist of the year and Hayes' fourth.

Melton, a senior out of nearby Bartlett, Tenn., then scored her first career goal at the 37:24 mark to make it 2-0. After a corner kick taken from the right side had bounced offseveral players from both teams, Melton was stationed just outside the far post and one-timed it into the upper left corner of the goal. Tulane had an excellent chance to score and make it 2-1 with just over 10 minutes left in the first half when, after a Memphis foul, Megan Weinlein sent a free kick from about 35 yards out into the box, where Memphis keeper Isabel Briones came out to bat the ball away. However, she batted it right into an oncoming Lauren Peek. The deflection off of Peek looked as if it was going to in but it went just wide of the right post.

After having her streak of consecutive games with a goal stopped at six in Memphis' last game, Hayes returned to the scoring column in the 54th minute when she was fed a ball by Mikami and then beat Morey one-on-one on a breakaway. A little over two minutes later, Memphis made it 4-0 when freshman Laura Pfeffer scored her first career goal when she kicked in a cross from Nicky McLeod. McLeod recorded her team-leading fifth assist of the season on the play as she sent the cross from the right side to Pfeffer who was waiting just outside the far post.

Mikami then made it a hat trick with a goal at the 59:11 mark and another one at the 60:51 mark. She redirected a cross from Asuka Kubota for her second goal of the night and then was fed a through ball by Hayes and beat an oncoming Morey for the third goal. For Hayes, it was her second assist of the night and her fifth of the year, giving her a tie with McLeod for the team lead in helpers. Tulane had another opportunity to get on the board with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game when Jill Sharp sent a bending shot toward the goal from the left side but Memphis keeper Isabel Briones made an acrobatic save to preserve the shutout.

Briones recorded her fourth shutout of the year in goal for the Tigers, needing to make three saves. Morey made 13 saves for the Green Wave, who were outshot by the Tigers 27-7 on the evening.

"This is a good way to start conference play," said Memphis coach Brooks Monaghan. "This was a good team effort tonight. Everyone gave up something and I was pleased with how we responded after our last game. We got some of the same scoring chances we had when we lost to SEMO but tonight we finished."

Memphis will battle undefeated UTEP on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Mike Rose Soccer Complex. The Miners, who won their first 11 games of the year, tied with UAB 3-3 on Friday night in the C-USA opener for both of those teams. They will enter with an 11-0-1 record.

Postgame Notes: This was Tulane's first game since September 4 and just its fourth game overall this season, as the Green Wave had multiple games cancelled due to both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita ... Mikami, who last week became the first Memphis player to record a hat trick since Jessica Gjertsen in the 2000 season, tonight became the first player to record more than one hat trick in a season since Gjertsen in 2000. Gjertsen had three hat tricks in 2000 and Memphis as a team had four, with Candice Spiniolas having the other ... Hayes and Mikami have now scored in the same game six times out of 10 games and at least one has scored in nine of 10 games ... Mikami now has 12 goals on the year, which is tied for second place in school history. Gjertsen holds the single-season record at 18 ... Hayes now has 10 goals and is tied for fifth on the same list ... Memphis surpassed its total of 84 points from all of last year with its 18 output tonight. The Tigers now have 95 points on the year ... The Tigers also surpassed their goal total from last year (28) and assist total from 2004 as well (28) ... Memphis now has 32 goals and 31 assists on the year in just 10 games.