Women's Soccer - SMU vs. Stephen F. Austin

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Here is what the Ladyjack media is saying about the game Monday:

http://sfajacks.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/082111aaa.html

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack soccer team will kick off a new season Monday night at 7 p.m. when they travel to Dallas to take on the SMU Mustangs for the first meeting in school history.

The match begins a stretch of three straight road games to begin the season, which includes contests at Tulsa (Friday, Aug. 26) and Oral Roberts (Sunday, Aug. 28).

For the first time since 2007, Stephen F. Austin has been picked to win the 2011 regular season championship by the league's coaches. The Ladyjacks earned five first-place votes and 75 points from the coaches to edge out Southeastern Louisiana's 70 points. It marks the fifth time in school history that SFA has been picked to finish first in the coaches poll.

The Ladyjacks return nine starters, 15 letterwinners and will be trying to incorporate eight freshmen to this year's squad.

SFA all returns five preseason all-conference nominees, including reigning SLC junior co-player of the year Kylie Louw, junior Laura Sadler and senior Jordan King. Louw, a midfielder from Discovery, South Africa, led the conference in goals per game (0.57) and was second in points per game (1.43) in league play. Sadler, a midfielder from Coppell, Texas, ranked first in conference play in shots (31), shots per game (3.44) and was second in points (11). King, a McKinney, Texas, native, played a key role in the Ladyjack defense, but also scored a team-best eight goals, four of which were game-winners.

SFA also returns senior defender Edwina Forbes and junior midfielder Breanne Vernon. Forbes, who is from Brisbane, Australia, led the Ladyjacks in minutes played (1,720) and scored twice on 11 shots last season. Vernon, a Calgary, Alberta, Canada, native, took eight shots on goal for the Ladyjacks and tallied one goal and one assist in 2010.

SMU is coming off a 11-7-4 record and finished the season 53rd in the RPI. The team finished 6-4-1 in Conference USA for a fourth place finish and advanced to the semifinals of the C-USA tournament before falling to UCF. On the defensive side, SMU returns its veteran core of Courtney Webb in goal, and central backs Kaitlyn Eidson and Katherine Cox. Last season, Webb posted the best numbers of her career, a 1.00 goals against average and eight shutouts. Eidson led the team with five goals and earned Second Team All-Conference USA honors. Offensively, Amanda Burgardt (four goals and one assist) and Kenzie Scovill (two goals and three assists) both return on the front line.

NOTES: Louw enters the 2011 season needing only one more point to move into sixth place on the schol's alltime career points list. The South Africa native is one point behind Kim Kimmel (42) and six points behind Sophia Pantazis (5). Louw is also only one goal shy (13 total) of moving into the top-10 in career goals and seven assists away from tying Christie Mestayer for the most in school history ... SFA is 8-7-1 all-time in season openers, which includes two victories in the last two seasons over Louisiana Lafayette and Louisiana Tech respectively. Included in that mark is a 4-5 record on the road in season openers.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Yeah - Ladyjacks. Seriously?

Even though they have a silly mascot, at least they didn't misspell any of the words in the article title on their website.

As for the game Monday night, SMU really needs to bounce back and get a good result. As frustrating as the Arkansas game was, it's over and it's time to get a big home win.

[Hoofprint]

Yeah - Ladyjacks. Seriously?

Even though they have a silly mascot, at least they didn't misspell any of the words in the article title on their website.

As for the game Monday night, SMU really needs to bounce back and get a good result. As frustrating as the Arkansas game was, it's over and it's time to get a big home win.

HA!

Mustang Comback Falls Short In Fayetteville

Nice work. Top 25!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Well, SMU won 2-1.

To be honest, we didn't look good at all.

Mallory Baum scored a sweet goal in the first half from 25 yards out - low and hard to the left corner. The play was started by some creativity by Rikki Clarke on the touchline, and after some nice footwork she was able to get the ball to Ryanne Lewis who fed Baum.

Courtney Webb had a HUGE save in the second half on a semi-breakaway. She timed leaving her line perfectly and was able to get a nice point-blank body save around 8 yards out.

Shortly thereafter, the SFA playmaker Loew juked a defender and was able to find an unmarked teammate around 8-10 yards out who was able to bury it for the equaliser.

With around two minutes left, Amelia Ambrose suddenly became the only player on the field with any energy and singlehandedly took the ball, got around/through a couple of defenders, and sent a hard shot into the upper right corner for the game-winner.

It was a long two hours though. Lots of turnovers, little energy, little drive, little creativity. It's nice to get the win though.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Yes - to be fair, it was hot which might explain some of the lack of energy - but it was hot in Fayetteville last Friday and we looked 10 times better against the Razorbacks.

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

SMU Wins On Late Goal
Ambrose scores game winner with two minutes left

Aug. 22, 2011

DALLAS (SMU) – The SMU women’s soccer team (1-1-0) got its first win of the season in dramatic fashion tonight with a goal in 88th minute by Amelia Ambrose to knock off Stephen F. Austin 2-1 at Westcott Field.

With overtime looming, the sophomore fought off a Ladyjack defender on the left side of the penalty box before cutting toward the goal and ripping the ball to the top right corner of the goal.

“The goal was just one player outworking and refusing to lose,” said Head Coach Brent Erwin of the play. “I know it’s a cliché, but she just got in and scored a nice goal, and Amelia does that for us. Sometimes you have to go into a game to make a difference and that’s what she does.”

SMU started the scoring off on the night with a strike inside the left post by junior Mallory Baum in the 29th minute with assists credited to Ryanne Lewis and Rikki Clarke.

For both sides, it was a tightly contested game, both having several scoring chances, but neither finding the back of the net.

After a key save in the second half by Courtney Webb on a free Ladyjack attacker in the penalty box, Stephen F. Austin scored the game-tying goal shortly after. In the 80th minute, Kylie Lowe got free on the SMU end line and laid off a pass to Breanne Vernon who found the left side of the net.

For the game, the two teams were even with six shots on goal, but the Ladyjacks held the total shot advantage at 13-10.

“We didn’t play very well at all,” Erwin said. “The positives are is that the sign of a good team a lot of times is being able to win when you didn’t play well. We just talked as a team and we were all disappointed with how we played, it wasn’t to the standard that we hold ourselves to, but saying that, we got a win.”

SMU will be back in action on Friday, Aug. 26 as the team hosts UT-San Antonio. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Westcott Field.

Season tickets are $24. Individual game tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Blocks of 50 or more tickets are $1 apiece. Tickets can be purchased online at SMUMustangs.com or by calling 214-SMU-GAME (214-768-4263).

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Well, I guess it's good Erwin and the team didn't think they played well either.

[PonyPride]

Actually, Friday's game against UTSA kicks off at 6:30 PM, and will be followed at 8:30 PM by the annual alumni game.

[Mustangsabu]

A win is a win but I hope that Friday night sees a step forward form-wise.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Final thoughts after sleeping on this one...

- The inconsistent ball movement was certainly a concern. It didn't appear to be anything SFA was doing. It was stuff like passes being too short, miscommunication, and heavy touches on the receiving end. What made it so puzzling is the passing had been so sharp against OSU and Arkansas. Maybe it was home opener jitters. Maybe it was a slight lack of focus because of the first day of classes. Whatever it was, it needs to get fixed in a hurry.

- The conceded goal last night and the second goal conceded against Arkansas were kind of the same thing. A run up our left defensive side, and a player able to make a move on our defender and find somebody unmarked in the box. This might be partly a result of not having a fourth midfielder out there, but now that the team has two of them on tape they should be able to figure out the root cause and get this one fixed.

- The forwards need to simplify. We are trying too much fancy stuff up top. There is still a lot of miscommunication up there too - which is understandable because of the new players and the need to rotate because of the heat, but it still doesn't excuse wasted offensive chance after wasted offensive chance. Put some balls on frame!

- Our best offensive chances this season have been from through balls from Baum and Clarke to forwards making diagonal runs through the backline. We had 7-8 of them against Arkansas and a couple of them last night. Definitely something to build on going forward.

- I can't imagine Webb, Eidson, Cox, Smith, Baum, and Clarke not playing 90 minutes every match. Hopefully this won't catch up to us later in the season.

- It looked like Scovill was injured in the first half last night. If there is one area where we can afford an injury it is probably at forward, but hopefully it isn't anything serious.

Also, SFA did finish 69 in RPI last season so it's not exactly like we were facing terrible competition, but SMU should be in a position this season to take care of this type of team and SFA wasn't exactly doing much out there either. We should have put them away early - especially after seeing their keeper nearly fumble two into the net early. If that wasn't an invitation for us to start putting as much on frame as possible I don't know what else we could be waiting for!

Other than the win, the best thing last night was the debut of the new black keeper kits! I didn't think anything could be cooler than the green ones but the black ones last night were super sharp!

[pony717]

Good insights and observations!