Oct. 6, 2004

Download Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Lady Tigers Return Home to Face Pair of North Carolina Opponents

Friday, October 8, vs. Charlotte, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 10, vs East Carolina, 1:00 p.m.
Mike Rose Soccer Complex (3,000), Memphis, Tenn.

This Week: The two Conference USA schools from North Carolina come calling to Memphis for both teams' first meetings with the Tigers since 2002. The Tigers will take on Charlotte at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and then face off against East Carolina on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Looking Ahead: Memphis heads further South for another pair of C-USA games. First, they will play in Tampa against USF on Friday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. Central time. They then head to Birmingham to play UAB on Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m.

Scouting Charlotte: The 49'ers have a 1-9-1 overall record and 1-1-1 mark in Conference USA competition. They were defeated by Marquette 4-0 and then tied DePaul 3-3 in action this past weekend. They lost their first seven games of the year before picking up their lone win over East Carolina. Charlotte is being outscored by a 30-11 margin on the year. Lindsey Beam leads the 49'er offense as she has four goals and three assists for 11 points and is the only Charlotte player in double figures in points. The 49'ers have a team goals against average of 2.62.

Scouting East Carolina: The Pirates enter Friday's game at Saint Louis with a 3-6-2 record, 1-1-1 in the conference. This past weekend, they topped DePaul 4-0 behind a hat trick by Meghan McCallion, who also had an assist. They also tied with Marquette, 2-2. East Carolina is led by McCallion on offense, who had five goals and three assists on the year for 13 points. The Pirates are being outscored 25-13 on the year and have a 2.18 team goals against average.

The Coaches: Brooks Monaghan (Memphis, 1994) is in his fifth year as head coach of the Lady Tigers. He holds a career record of 36-46-5 during his time with the Tigers. Prior to becoming the head coach, he served as the goalkeepers coach for the Lady Tigers from 1996-99. He has been a part of the Lady Tiger program for all but one year of its existence, that being the first year of the program in 1995. Under his guidance in his first year as goalkeepers coach, the team's gaa dropped by nearly an entire goal, from 2.74 to 1.77. Monaghan is the all-time leader in shutouts (24) and goals against average (1.40) for the Memphis men's soccer program, which he played for from 1992-94.
Neil Roberts (Delaware, 1987) is in his sixth year at the helm of the women's soccer program at Charlotte. He has a career record of 88-90-15 in nine seasons as a head coach and a 58-45-12 record in his time at Charlotte. He coached at East Carolina for four seasons prior to coming to Charlotte. He was named the 2002 C-USA Coach of the Year after leading the 49'ers to a 16-2-2 record and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Rob Donnewirth (West Virginia Wesleyan, 1988), is in his sixth year as head coach at East Carolina, where he holds a record of 52-39-15. In his career, he has a record 114-65-24, which included a stint as North Carolina Wesleyan College from 1994-99. His team at NCWC made a final four appearance in Division III.

UM All-Time vs. Charlotte: For the second straight weekend, the Tigers will attempting to defeat an opponent for the first time ever, as Memphis is 0-9 all-time against the 49'ers. Memphis and Charlotte did not meet last year but met twice in 2002, including once in the C-USA Tournament. The Tigers have scored only four goals in all nine of their meetings with the 49'ers.

UM All-Time vs. East Carolina: The Tigers 1-0 all-time against the Pirates, as they own a win in the teams' only previous meeting, a 3-2 decision in the 2002 season.

Haerens Moves up Quickly: Freshman Natalie Haerens recorded her fifth shutout of the year in a 2-0 win over Houston on Sunday. With that, she now already has the third-most shutouts in program history. The career record is 14 and with just two more, she will move into second place in career shutouts at Memphis as only a freshman.

Tigers End Houston Dominance: The Tigers' 2-0 win over Houston on Sunday marked the first-ever win against the Cougars in program history. Memphis had been 0-6 against Houston previously. The Tigers will attempt to win their first-ever game against another opponent next weekend when they face off against Charlotte on Friday. Memphis is 0-9 all-time against the 49'ers.

Crazy 8's: With still nine games to play on the year, Memphis already has the third-most wins in a season in program history. The 1996 squad won eight games. With just one more win, this year's team will tie both the 2000 and 2002 teams for second all-time with nine wins. The school record for most wins, which is 11 set back in 1997, is very much in reach for the Tigers this season.

Tigers Equal 2003 C-USA Win Total: With the 2-0 win over Houston on Sunday, the Tigers equaled their mark for conference victories from last year with two. Memphis is now 2-1 in C-USA play this year after going just 2-7-1 a year ago.

Shutouts Keep Coming: The Tigers recorded their sixth shutout of the year with a 2-0 win over Houston on Sunday afternoon. Memphis has recorded at least one shutout in five of the six weekends out of the season to this point. They also recorded a midweek shutout.

Firsts: Sophomore midfielder Melissa Savage became the fifth Memphis player this year to record her first career goal with her game-winner against Houston. Savage, a native of Arlington, Texas, netted her first-career tally in her home state. She joins freshmen Carla Scanniello and Caroline Barrett, fellow sophomores Beth Keating, and senior Susannah Dawells as Memphis players that have scored their first-career goal this season.

Mikami Debuts: It did not take long at all for sophomore transfer Shoko Mikami to get her name into the points column. Mikami, a transfer from Division II Christian Brothers University who led Division II nationally in points and goals per game last year, assisted on Melissa Savage's first career goal and game-winner against Houston. It was only the third game of the year for Mikami, who tore an ACL last spring and did not play until the Evansville game on September 26.

Scanniello Takes Over Points Lead: Freshman forward Carla Scanniello scored her first goal since September 10 against Houston on Sunday. It is her fourth of the year, second on the team, and it gives her 11 points on the year, which moves in front of Madison Cheek for team-leading honors in that department.

Tigers Crack Regional Rankings: For the first time in program history, Memphis was regionally ranked last week. The Tigers came in at #15 in the Soccer Buzz Central Region poll.

Defense Continues to Shine: Exception defense is needed for shutouts and the Tigers have gotten no less than that for most of this year. Expected to be a strong point on the team this year, the Memphis defense has allowed just seven goals in 11 games, which equals out to a 0.63 goals against average. If this pace can be maintained through the rest of the season, it would far surpass last year's final team gaa of 1.60 and would also break the school record of 1.43.

First Half Wall: In its 11 games this year, Memphis has allowed just two goals in the first half, both coming in a loss to Mississippi State on September 14. In the first half of games this year, the Tigers have a microscopic 0.18 goals against average.

Tigers Knock Off One More NCAA Participant: Memphis made its first of two games this year against an NCAA Tournament participant from last year count with a 1-0 win over Ole Miss back on August 31. The Tigers made the second game count as well as they knocked off defending Conference USA tournament champion DePaul 2-1 on September 24 in their conference opener. The Tigers' next game of significance concerning accomplishments of last year will come on October 17 when they face last season's C-USA regular season champion UAB.

Cheek on Fire: Sophomore forward Madison Cheek put together a brief but still impressive streak over a stretch of a few games earlier this year. She scored three straight Memphis goals over a period of two games. Against Drury on September 17, she scored the only Tiger goal in a 1-0 win and then she netted both goals in the 2-1 win over DePaul on September 24. The streak was broken when Mary Shelton scored the lone Memphis goal against Evansville on September 26. Cheek now has five goals on the year to lead the team after scoring just one her freshman year.

Tigers Surpass 2003 Win Total: With the win over DePaul on September 24, the Tigers surpassed their five wins from last season with their sixth of the year in just their eighth game. Memphis, which is now 8-3, now needs only two more wins this year to set a school record for the biggest increase in wins from one year to the next. Their previous best improvement was from 2001 to 2002 when they won five games in `01 and then nine in `02.

Another Eye-Opener: The win over DePaul on September 24 marked only the second time in program history that the Tigers have won their conference opener. The only other time they did that was in 1996 when they defeated Tulane 2-0. Last year, they tied Louisville in their C-USA opener.

Successful September: The Tigers wrapped up the month of September with a 7-2 record, by far their best start ever in program history through the end of August and September. The program's previous best start through the end of September in terms of win total was in the 2000 campaign when they went 6-5 in August and September.

Iron Women: With the regular season now more than half over games old, there have been only eight players that have played in every game so far and only two of those, Carla Scanniello, and Leanne McGee have started every game.

Samford Game Postponed: Memphis's scheduled game with Samford on September 19 was postponed indefinitely due to Hurricane Ivan. Samford, located in Birmingham, Ala., shut down its campus and postponed all athletic events through Sunday. If it is made up, it will be played at the end of October.

Haerens Wins Second Straight C-USA Defensive Player of the Week Award: Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Haerens was named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week for the second straight week on September 13 after recorded another shutout in the win over Tennessee Tech and allowing just one goal in a win at Tennessee-Martin.
With her second award, she has now been awarded as many C-USA Defensive Player of the Week awards as had previously been awarded to all Memphis individuals in program history. There had been just two other Defensive POW award winners in Memphis history.

Memphis Breaks Ole Miss Streak: The win over Ole Miss also ended a streak. The Rebels had won 16 straight non-conference game at home and had not lost in their last 22 non-conference games at home, winning 21 and tying one. Their last lost at home prior to Tuesday night was against San Diego State in 1999.

Home, Sweet Home: This season will see a bit of a change as far as playing facilities go, as the Tigers will play all of their home games at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex after only playing conference games there the past two years. Throughout the history of the program, the Lady Tigers have a substantially better record at home than on the road. UM is 47-40-5 all-time at home but only 20-62-3 on the road. On neutral fields, the Tigers are 2-4-1, but have played just one match on a neutral field since 1997.

Drawing First Blood: The Lady Tigers were more successful last year when they scored first. Out of their 18 games, they scored first in eight of them, while their opponent drew first blood in nine of them. In the eight games in which they scored first, they went 4-2-2 but only went 1-8-0 when their opponent scored first.
This year, the Tigers have scored first in nine of their 11 games and are 8-1-0 in those games, and 0-2-0 when their opponent scores first.

Leading at Halftime is Better: The Tigers led at halftime in just four games last year but not surprisingly, they went 4-0-0 in those games. When trailing at the half, their record was an opposite 0-4-0. When tied at the half, they went just 1-6-3. The Tigers have won eight straight games when leading at the half dating back to 2002.
This year, the Tigers are 5-1 when leading at the half, 0-1 w hen trailing at the half, and 3-1 when tied at the half.

Recruits Ranked by Soccer Buzz: This year's freshman class has been ranked the 23rd best recruiting class in the Central Region by Soccer Buzz. This is the second straight year that the Lady Tiger recruiting class has been ranked in the regional rankings by the online publication, as last season's freshman class was ranked 11th in the region and was also in the upper half of the national top 100 classes, coming in at 46. Memphis's freshman class is the second-highest rated class in Conference USA in the Central Region, coming in just behind Houston, which came in 22nd.