April 16, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The University of Memphis women's soccer team records their final victory of the spring following their 9-1 victory over the Arkansas State Redwolves on Thursday, April 16.

"This was a great way to finish off the spring," said head coach Brooks Monaghan. "The game was closer than the score showed, but we had some good opportunities and had some great finishes though. Our defense struggled a bit tonight, but overall I'm proud of our girls and I'm proud of the way they closed the spring."

Nearly 22 minutes of scoreless play went by before sophomore Melissa Smith deposited a header in the back of the net off of a junior Laura Laufenberg corner kick at the 23:12 mark in the first half.

"Someone who had a great performance tonight was Melissa (Smith)," said Monaghan. "She struggled a bit last year recovering from her knee surgery and she has got right back into the grove this spring. She's a goal scorer and we need her to do that for us."

Freshman Nikki Unland was called on for the start in goal for the Lady Tigers. At the 20:39 mark, Arkansas State tied up the game at 1-1 with only their fourth shot of the game. Defender and sophomore Tarah Kerr made her first appearance back from a season ending knee injury suffered during the 2008 preseason.

"Another person who had a great game coming back from a knee injury is Tarah (Kerr)," said Monaghan. "She even got a key save off the line. She came out and got after it and isn't tentative. She is just playing with no fear and it's great to have her back at full strength."

With 10:21 left in the first half, Memphis began a barrage of scoring started by Smith's second goal of the night from deep inside the box on the left side.

At the 8:48 mark, junior Victoria Dalton netted a goal off a rebound from an Ashley Berra corner kick. Just one minute and one second later, Berra scored one of her own from a rebounded corner kick this time from Laufenberg.

Laufenberg then capitalized on one of her own from the right side of the box less than a minute later at the 6:48 mark to put the Lady Tigers up 5-1 heading into halftime. Memphis outshot the Redwolves 20-9 in the first half.

Jordan Boyle got the start coming out of halftime. She spent 45 minutes of scoreless time in net.

C-USA Offensive Player of the Year Vendula Strnadova decided to add her own goal at the 33:24 mark of the second period in the open field right above the box.

At the 24:41 mark, Smith completed a hat-trick as she netted one from the top of the Redwolves box off of a throw in from Olszewski.

In a night where the Lady Tigers seemed to flow and feed off each other very well, Olszewski netted the final goal of the game at the 22:00 mark with a hard shot from 30 yards out off of a ball played back from freshman Julia Ignacio.

"Amanda (Olszewski) has also showed a tremendous amount of improvement through the spring and she had a phenomenal game tonight," said Monaghan. "We've seen her continuously improving and she can be an impact player for us."

The Lady Tigers finished the game having outshot Arkansas State 37-15 as the scoreboard read 9-1.

"As a coach, I see a lot of things that we can work on, but overall I'm really happy with the way the spring went," said Monaghan. "We had one bad week in there, but we came back from that and really finished strong and on a high note tonight."

Memphis finishes the spring with a 5-0-2 record. Their awards banquet is next Thursday and they head into the summer offseason as reining and two-time C-USA regular season champions and C-USA Tournament Champions from the 2007 and 2008 seasons.