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The SMU women's soccer team made a significant jump in 2010, collecting four more victories than the previous season and jumping 76 places in the national RPI rankings, but were one of the teams that did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Head coach Brent Erwin visited with PonyFans.com to discuss how the Ponies will replace a pair of key graduated seniors, who is coming back from significant injuries and whether he thinks his team will reach the NCAA Tournament in 2011.

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Nice article. I like Erwin's optimism. Realistically, there is no reason we can't finish third in the conference this season.

With solid goalkeeping from Courtney Webb, two senior center backs, and Courtney Smith with a full year of experience, I don't think it is unrealistic to expect the team to keep the goals against average down near 1.00 (it was 1.05 last season).

The key will be if the team can score more goals this season. We just have to get our goals scored up from the 1.23 per game last season. I think a full season of Shelby Redman will make a big difference.

I am very interested to see who is playing right back and what Erwin is going to do in midfield this season. I imagine we will get some answers Saturday night.

Every coach is optimistic at the start of a season, but the Ponies looked a lot better last night than they did last year. I'm not getting carried away with optimism, but there is clear evidence of improvement. Having Redman back gave the offense an extra jolt that was missing last year when she was hurt.