Oct. 29, 2005

Complete Release with Updated C-USA Standings Through Saturday in PDF Format
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Dallas, Texas - Fresh off setting a school record for wins with its 12th victory of the year on Friday night over Tulsa, 1-0, the Memphis women's soccer team will close out its regular season on Sunday at SMU, attempting to further strengthen their Conference USA Tournament seeding. With the win on Friday, Memphis guaranteed itself at least the #5 seed. Listed below are the possible scenarios for Memphis.

With a win, Memphis would clinch at least a tie for second place in C-USA and the #2 seed in the C-USA Tournament.

With a win and a UCF loss to Houston, Memphis would end the season in a three-way tie for first but would still end up with the #2 seed because it lost to UCF. If Memphis wins, UCF only needs to tie or win to finish first outright.

If the Tigers are the #2 seed, Memphis would play either East Carolina, Houston, or UAB, depending on Sunday's results. All three of those teams can still finish seventh.

With a loss to SMU on Sunday, Memphis would be either the #4 or #5 seed, depending on what Rice does on Sunday in its game at Southern Miss. If Rice wins and the Tigers lose, then Memphis would be the #5 seed and would play UTEP, which would be the #4 seed. If both Rice and Memphis lose, then the standings would remain the same at the #4 and #5 positions and Memphis would be the #4 seed and play the host Owls in the quarterfinals. If Rice ties and Memphis loses, then the teams would be tied in the final standings and would still play each other in the first round, with the seeds being flipped from the previous scenario.

If Memphis were to tie its game with SMU, it could still be no better than the #4 seed. If the Tigers tie and Rice ties or loses to Southern Miss, then once again it would be the Tigers and Owls in the first round. If Memphis ties and Rice wins, then they would be tied in the final standings with UTEP and on the tiebreaker, Memphis would end up being the fifth seed and playing UTEP in the first round.

To summarize, Memphis can be either the #2 (if its wins), #4 or #5 seeds (if it loses or ties) and will end up playing either UTEP or Rice (if it loses or ties and ends up with the #4 or #5), or UAB, Houston, or East Carolina (if it wins and ends up with the #2).

Individually, Shoko Mikami will enter play on the final day of the regular season with a four-point lead in the race for the conference points title. Mikami has 37 entering Sunday to lead SMU's Kimber Bailey, who has 33 points. Mikami also co-leads the conference in both goals (14) and assists (9). She is tied with UTEP's Melissa Abraham for the goal lead and with the Miners' Kia Sams for the assist lead. Mikami is four points shy of breaking the Memphis single season record for points in a season, which stands at 40 and also moved into third place all-time for most assists in a season.

Goalkeeper Isabel Briones recorded her sixth shutout of the season and her 11th win last night. With the shutout, she tied Natalie Haerens' mark set last year for most shutouts by goalie in a season and with her 11th win of the season, set a new record for most goalkeeping victories in a year, breaking the mark of 10 set by Haerens last year. Briones also now has seven career shutouts and moved into third place on the career shutout list. With the shutout last night, Briones also lowered her goals against average to 0.92, well on the way to breaking the goals against average record for a goalie in a season, which stands a 1.18.

As a team, Memphis has scored 45 goals and is just three shy of breaking the school record for most goals in a season (47). The Tigers also have 48 assists and are six off the school mark in that category (53). They are also just 10 points away from breaking the record for most points (147). The team goals against average is also now at 0.93, also well on the way to breaking the mark for team goals against average, which is 1.19 and was set last year.