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SMU opens conference play Friday night at Westcott against Central Florida.

SMU preview: http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092111aab.html

UCF preview: http://ucfathletics.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092111aaa.html

UCF comes in 5-1-2 after non-conference play and are number 11 in the unofficial RPI right now. NSCAA has UCF ranked #19 nationally and #3 in the Central region.

The Golden Knights do have a couple of very impressive results this season - a 1-0 win over San Diego and a 2-1 win over Penn State. Lately they appear to be struggling with their two most recent matches being a 2-1 win over Jacksonville and a 0-0 draw against Florida Gulf Coast - both at home.

UCF is the overwhelming preseason conference favorite and they have four players on the preseason all-conference team. UCF is also the most glamourous opponent on the SMU home schedule this season so hopefully there will be a nice turnout!

It will be interesting to see if SMU tries to keep this one very tight like the UCLA match or if we go for it. Obviously a result against UCF to start conference play would be HUGE for the Mustangs.

Go ponies!

There is apparently some sort of promotion with Vera Bradley scheduled for the Friday night game.

It hasn't really been advertised that much - but there is some info in a youtube preview they put up this evening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC_KemoIFW8

Some sort of giveaway for the first 1000 fans or something. I have no idea what the significance of Vera Bradley is but it might not be a bad game to attend.

Hopefully the women will get a big and rowdy crowd Friday night!

WAy to go!!!

SMU beat No. 19 UCF tonight at Westcott 1-0!

Kaitlyn Eidson deflected a Courtney Smith free kick for the goal around midway through the second half.

SMU played stellar defense all evening. Kaitlyn Eidson was an absolute beast, and Courtney Webb had three HUGE saves along the way.

The offense still didn't totally click but SMU was still able to generate some pretty decent chances on UCF.

The only dark cloud was Rikki Clarke leaving with a leg injury in the second half and not returning.

There was a nice, big and rowdy crowd as well.

What a great way to get conference play started. You could tell the team was pretty pumped about this one!

Southern Miss comes to Westcott Sunday.

The UCF game summary is up (note they use their Soccer America rank of No. 13):

http://ucfathletics.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/092311aaa.html

UCF did lead in total shots 13-5. UCF also had a slight advantage in shots on goal 5-3. UCF also had a 5-4 advantage on corners.

The SMU goal was at 62:39. Attendance was 551.

They only called 16 fouls (9 on SMU and 7 on UCF) and only gave out two yellows (1 against each team) but they could have called a bunch more. It was a pretty physical game and the ref certainly let them play. SMU showed a lot of character to give as much as UCF did.

Good stuff

Great result! Hope Clarke is OK.