Oct. 14, 2004

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Memphis Hits the Road Again, Travels to USF and UAB

Friday, October 15, at USF, 6:30 p.m.
USF Soccer Stadium (4,000), Tampa, Fla.
Sunday, October 17 at UAB, 2:00 p.m.
West Campus Field (2,500), Birmingham, Ala.

This Week: The Tigers embark on their second conference road trip of the year, which will take them to both Florida and Alabama. They will take on the University of South Florida on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Central time. They then continue on to Alabama to take on defending C-USA regular-season champion the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Looking Ahead: Memphis returns home for a Friday night home game against Marquette on October 22 at 7:00 p.m. before hitting the road for a game at Saint Louis on Sunday, October 24 at 1:00 p.m.

Game Change: The game originally scheduled for Saturday, October 30 against Cincinnati at home has been moved up a day to Friday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m. The change was made necessary because a number of teams in the conference need to make up games that were postponed because of the hurricanes that came through last month. Some teams will need to play two games instead of the originally scheduled one and to make it fair, the conference elected to change games previously scheduled for Saturday to Friday.

Scouting USF: The Bulls, who have had several game postponed or cancelled due to the hurricanes, won their first two conference games this past weekend on the road against Southern Miss and Tulane, shutting out both opponents by 3-0 and 1-0 scores, respectively. They have a 3-5-2 record overall and a 2-2-0 mark in C-USA. Prior to this weekend, however, they struggled to score, as they were shut out in three consecutive games. They have scored just eight goals on the year and are led by Erica Lewis, who has two goals and two assists for six points. Defensively, they have a 1.41 goals against average and goalkeeper Breck Bankester has played in all but 30 minutes of USF's games, averaging 1.17 goals against.

Scouting UAB: The defending regular season C-USA champions also swept their games this past weekend against Tulane and Southern Miss, winning by scores of 3-2 and 4-0, respectively. They will enter their Friday night game at home against Saint Louis with an 8-4-1 overall mark and a 4-1-0 record in C-USA play, tied with Memphis. Tara Kidwell leads the Blazers with 10 goals on the year and 21 points after scoring five goals in their two games over the weekend. The Blazers have a team goals against average of just under 1 at 0.99.

The Coaches: Brooks Monaghan (Memphis, 1994) is in his fifth year as head coach of the Lady Tigers. He holds a career record of 38-46-5 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.
T. Logan Fleck (Old Dominion, 1984) is in his 10th year as head coach at USF, where has compiled a 82-72-14. He has a record of 96-82-15 overall in this, his 12th year as a head coach, doing a two-year stint at Arkansas-Little Rock prior to USF. He has also served as the head coach of the men's team at USF at the same time from 1994-96.
Paul Harbin (Mercer, 1985) is in his ninth season as head coach at UAB. He is the only coach in the history of the program. He has a career record of 122-100-13 in this, his 13th year as a head coach, which also included a stint at his alma mater prior to coming to UAB. He is 86-74-11 in his time at UAB. He led the Blazers to regular season C-USA championship last year.

UM All-Time vs. USF: Memphis holds a 2-6 all-time record against the Bulls. They were shut out by USF in each of the last two seasons. Their last win over the Bulls came in the 2001 season.

UM All-Time vs. UAB: The Tigers are also 2-6 all-time against UAB. Memphis lost to the Blazers last year, also in Birmingham by a 2-1 score. Their last win over UAB came in the 2002 season, a 1-0 victory.

Tigers Crack Regional Rankings: For the first time in program history, Memphis was regionally ranked onSeptember 28. This week, the Tigers moved up to #10 in the Soccer Buzz Central Region poll.

Wealth Spread over the Weekend ... : While Memphis scored nine goals and recorded 12 assists and 30 points in its two games over the past weekend, it wasn't any one player that got all of the accolades, rather it was a plethora of individuals that got in on the action. Eight different players recorded the Tigers' nine goals while six different players recorded assists. Of those six players, four had more than one assist on the weekend, led by Vicki Greenwell and Monica Powell with three apiece.

and on the Year as well ... : With all of this past weekend's offensive exploits, Memphis now has 12 players that have scored at least one goal on the year, 10 players with at least one assist, and 15 players with at least one point.

What, no Shutout?: For only the second weekend this year, Memphis failed to record a shutout, as they had recorded at least one in all but one weekend so far this year.

Twice the Fun: The nine goals scored in back-to-back games is the most for the Tigers since the beginning of the 1999 season, when they scored 11 goals in back-to-back wins over Rhodes and Toledo. They are the most scored in back-to-back games against Division 1 opponents since 1996 when they scored 11 against Stephen F. Austin and Evansville. However, they lost the game to Evansville that year, making this two-game stretch this year the most goals Memphis has ever scored in back-to-back wins against a pair of Division 1 opponents.

Tigers Break Another Streak: For the second straight weekend, Memphis recorded its first-ever win in program history against an opponent. The Tigers 5-1 win over Charlotte was their first-ever against the 49'ers, who had previously been 9-0 against the Tigers. This follows Memphis's 2-0 win over Houston last weekend, which was their first-ever win against the Cougars in seven tries.

Two More for the Record: With 10 wins now on the year, Memphis has doubled its win total from last year and already has the second-most wins in school history. With just two more wins, they will set a school record for most wins in a season. That record is 11 set by the 1997 squad.

Double W's: With a 10-3 overall record and a 4-1 mark in C-USA play, Memphis has now doubled its win total from last year both overall and in conference play.

Greenwell Helps Out: Freshman midfielder Vicki Greenwell has started the last three games after getting just two starts in the Tigers' first 10 contests. She responded well by recording three assists this past weekend and she now leads Memphis in helpers with six on the year. Greenwell, the last signee of this year's freshman recruiting class, has displayed exceptional ball control and passing ability.

Firsts: Two more Memphis players scored their first career goals this weekend, and both came in the waning second of the games. Redshirt freshman Candace Halvorson netted her first career tally at the 87:45 mark in the win over Charlotte, while true freshman Kelsey Irish scored her first career goal as the horn sounded to end the game against East Carolina. They join fellow freshmen Carla Scanniello and Caroline Barrett, sophomores Beth Keating and Melissa Savage, and senior Susannah Dawells as Memphis players that have scored their first-career goals 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 on October 3. She then scored her first-career Division 1 goal, which turned out to be the game-winner, against East Carolina on Sunday. Mikami, who tore an ACL last spring, did not play until the Evansville game on September 26.

Defense Continues to Shine: Exception defense is needed for success 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 nine goals in 13 games, which equals out to a 0.69 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 13 games this year, Memphis has allowed just three goals in the first half, two coming in a loss to Mississippi State on September 14 and the other this past weekend against Charlotte. In the first half of games this year, the Tigers have a microscopic 0.23 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.

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, there have been only seven 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.

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 49-40-5 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 11 of their 13 games and are 10-1-0 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 7-1 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.