March 28, 2009

DECATUR, Ala. - The University of Memphis women's soccer team recorded a 1-0-1 record over the weekend. The Lady Tigers played SEC foe Vanderbilt to a 0-0 tie and took down Samford in a 2-1 match on a damp windy day. In each game, the halves were only 35 minute periods instead of the regular 45 minutes.

"I just think it was a day of up and downs for us," said head coach Brooks Monaghan. "The conditions made it tough to play with all the rain and wind, but everybody has to play with the same conditions. I thought there were good things today and some poor things. It was a roller coaster, but we definitely learned some things that we need to work on."

A back and forth battle in the first match resulted in a 0-0 tie. This was the first tie of the spring season and the first since the Lady Tigers played to a 3-3 tie against East Carolina at the tail end of the C-USA regular season in 2008.

The first half of the second game against Samford was deadlocked in a scoreless tie. C-USA co-Freshman of the Year Lizzy Simonin broke the tie off an assist from Ashley Berra. Samford tied the game up at 1-1 before Melissa Smith netted the game winning goal with five minutes left to play in the short regulation periods.

"We didn't drop a game today which was a bonus, but I think that there were some negatives that we can learn from," said Monaghan. "We were not consistent enough, but today was good for us because we got to play two good games against a pair of quality opponents."

The Lady Tigers host their first game against Big Ten Conference member Iowa on Sunday, April 5 at 12:00 p.m. at Mike Rose Soccer Complex.

"It was good to get back out and compete against someone other than ourselves because we haven't had a game in over a month, but we just have to continue to work hard because we have another one next week against another quality opponent in Iowa."