Women's Soccer - Spring schedule released

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU announced the spring schedule today.

http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/020912aac.html

March 24 Midwestern State 2:00 p.m.
April 6 TCU (at Dallas International Girls Cup) 2:00 p.m.
April 14 at Oklahoma State 1:00 p.m.
April 21 at Texas A&M 1:00 p.m.
April 28 Oklahoma 2:00 p.m.

It looks like a nice mix of teams with some good challenges. Hopefully the team will be healthy enough this spring for the games to be meaningful and productive. Last year we ended playing one (and maybe two) of the road games with only 10 players...

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I started breaking down the Midwestern State game tonight.

It turns out they are also the Mustangs, and their athletics website is msumustangs.com which looks kind of funny...

(Just kidding on breaking down the game of course)

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The official roster has been updated to reflect the players who have left the program. Other than the ones we already knew about (Burgardt, Canty, Nigh) there was one surprise in Lauren White. She obviously didn't make much of an impact on defense this season, but being a natural center back I figured she might see some minutes this spring to at least get a chance to make an impression before the freshmen come in this summer.

Anyway, it looks like it's going to be another shorthanded spring for SMU.

Keepers (2): Bodden, Stewart
Defense (4): Smith, Hartweck, Larson, Bass
Midfield (5): Baum, Clarke, Bartol, Ambrose, Robinson
Forward (5): Redman, Elliott, Scovill, Lewis, Gaines

So we will only have 14 outfield players available. Robinson will probably only see limited minutes coming off her knee. There are also usually some other players who have had off-season surgery as well who will either be unavailable or limited in their action.

I imagine we will see the seniors (at least in the home games) if they want to play - maybe we'll even get to see Webb play some forward or midfield which would be cool.

Hopefully we won't be in the situation of having to play with 10 on the road like last season!

The interesting thing we might be able to learn this spring is if Smith is moving to center back. It sure seems like a dangerous move since it will hurt the offense to some degree, but she is by far the best defender on the team so it might be a necessity.