Oct. 21, 2004

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Stretch Run Begins for Lady Tigers; Face Marquette and SLU This Weekend

Friday, October 22, vs. Marquette, 7:00 p.m.
Mike Rose Soccer Complex (3,000), Memphis, Tenn.
Sunday, October 24, at Saint Louis, 1:00 p.m.
Robert R. Hermann Stadium (6,050), St. Louis, Mo.

This Week: The Tigers play one road and one home game this weekend against a pair of opponents bound for other conferences next season. The weekend begins with a game against Big East bound Marquette on Friday at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex at 7:00 p.m. Memphis then gets to play a game at the site of the upcoming Conference USA Tournament when they take on first-place and Atlantic 10 bound Saint Louis on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Looking Ahead: Memphis wraps up its regular season with a home game against Cincinnati on Friday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday at the same time but was moved due to some schools, including Cincinnati, needing to make up games that were postponed.

Scouting Marquette: The Golden Eagles enter Friday's game with a record of 8-6-1, but a 4-2-1 mark in C-USA play, which puts them just ahead of the Tigers with nine points to Memphis's eight. They won a pair of games at home this past weekend against TCU and Houston by 3-2 and 3-0 scores. Meghan Connelly and Alison Loughrin each have five goals apiece to lead the Golden Eagles while Connelly has 15 points to top the team. Katie Bissen has seen the majority of time in goal for Marquette and has a 1.50 goals against average. As a team, Marquette has a 1.51 gaa.

Scouting Saint Louis: The Billikens sit atop the C-USA standings with a 7-0-0 mark in league play after topping both UAB and USF this past weekend. SLU outscored its opponents 6-1 over the weekend. The Billikens have an overall record of 11-3-1 and have won seven straight heading into their game on Friday at Southern Miss. Saint Louis has outscored its opponents by a 28-7 margin this season and is holding is opponents to a 0.46 goals against average. Goalkeeper Amanda Martin has seen most of the time in goal and has a 0.37 gaa. Both marks are tops in the conference. Offensively, Dee Guempel has 21 points on seven goals and seven assists to lead the Billikens. She is one of just four players that have 10 or more points on the team.

The Coaches: Brooks Monaghan (Memphis, 1994) is in his fifth year as head coach of the Lady Tigers. He holds a career record of 38-48-5 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.
Markus Roeders (UNC-Ashville, 1990) is in his ninth season as head coach at Marquette, where he holds a career record of 129-51-15. He has led the Golden Eagles to seven C-USA title game appearances, four NCAA Tournament berths, and two NCAA Tournament wins. He was named C-USA Coach of the Year twice. Marquette has won three regular season conference titles and two tournament titles under his guidance.
Tim Champion (Harris-Stowe College, 1979) is in his ninth year as head coach at Saint Louis and is the only coach the program has ever had. He holds a career record of 163-69-22 in this, his 12th season as a head coach. At SLU, he has a record of 103-55-18. He has led the Billikens to a regular season C-USA championship in 2000 and a berth in tournament title game last year.

UM All-Time vs. Marquette: The Tigers are 0-9 all-time against the Golden Eagles. The last two games in the series, last year and in 2001, have been decided by one goal.

UM All-Time vs. Saint Louis: Memphis holds a 2-5 record in the series against Saint Louis. Memphis has lost the last four meetings and has not scored a goal in the last two. The last win in the series for the Tigers came in 1998. The teams did not meet last season.

Trying for Another First: For the third time this year, Memphis will attempt to knock off an opponent for the first time ever when they take on Marquette this Friday. The Tigers have never beaten the Golden Eagles. Memphis picked up its first-ever wins in program history against Houston and Charlotte earlier this year.

Not a Good Weekend: For the first time this year, Memphis lost back-to-back games this weekend to USF and UAB. The Tigers have three games remaining in the regular season. With two wins in these final three, they will set a school record for wins.

Defense Stutters: After giving up just four first-half goals in their first 13 games, Memphis yielded four goals in the first halves of their two games this past weekend.

Frosh Continues to Shine: Freshman Vicki Greenwell was the lone bright spot on offense this past weekend as she netted the only goal of the weekend for the Tigers. She finally broke though in the goal column after recording six assists prior to the weekend, which leads the Tigers. She is currently third on the team in points with eight.

Spreading the Wealth: With Vicki Greenwell having scored her first career goal this past weekend, Memphis now has 13 players that have scored at least one goal on the year. There are 10 players with at least one assist, and 15 players with at least one point.

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

Tigers Crack Regional Rankings: For the first time in program history, Memphis was regionally ranked on September 28. This week, the Tigers dropped just one spot from #10 to #11 in the Soccer Buzz Central Region poll.

Twice the Fun: The nine goals scored in back-to-back games last weekend against Charlotte and East Carolina 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.

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 10-5 overall record and a 4-3 mark in C-USA play, Memphis has now doubled its win total from last year both overall and in conference play.

Firsts: Two more Memphis players scored their first career goals last 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 October 10. Mikami, who tore an ACL last spring, did not play until the Evansville game on September 26.

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.

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 20-64-3 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 12 of their 15 games and are 10-2-0 in those games, and 0-3-0 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, 0-2 w hen trailing at the half, and 3-2 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.