W-Soccer: SMU at Tulsa

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The Mustangs cap off the regular season Friday night at Tulsa with a 7pm start time.

SMU (8-6-4, 4-2-4) has had a very nice season and shown a tremendous amount of progress. Even though the Mustangs are currently in 7th place in the conference standings, we have the 3rd highest RPI of the C-USA teams (behind UCF and Colorado College). Unfortunately, the four draws in C-USA and the shocking loss at Southern Miss have been too much to overcome as far as the conference tournament seeding goes for SMU.

The Golden Hurricane (10-5-3, 5-3-2) has been consistent all season, but haven't really played an overly challenging schedule. The only top team they have played is Notre Dame and they dropped that one 2-0, although Tulsa is currently on an impressive run of four straight C-USA games without allowing a goal.

Memphis is at UAB and Marshall is at ECU on Thursday, so the conference picture will be a little bit clearer by the time we take the field Friday night. Although, with UCF, Rice and Colorado College all on the road as well this weekend, who knows what is in store based on the way this crazy C-USA season has gone so far.

Current C-USA standings heading into the weekend:

1. 22 (7-2-1) Colorado College
1. 22 (7-2-1) Rice
3. 21 (7-3-0) UCF
4. 18 (5-2-3) East Carolina
5. 17 (5-3-2) Tulsa
6. 16 (5-4-1) Memphis
7. 16 (4-2-4) SMU
8. 12 (3-3-3) Houston
--------
9. 10 (3-6-1) Marshall
10. 9 (3-7-0) UTEP
11. 3 (1-8-0) Southern Miss
12. 3 (1-9-0) UAB

GO PONIES!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The SMU release has all of the potential final C-USA standings scenarios for SMU in the Tulsa pregame:

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/102412aac.html

4th Place
SMU beats Tulsa
East Carolina ties/loses to Marshall
Memphis ties/loses to UAB

5th Place
SMU beats Tulsa
Memphis ties/loses to UAB
East Carolina beats Marshall

6th Place
SMU beats Tulsa
Memphis beats UAB
East Carolina beats Marshall
OR
SMU ties Tulsa
Memphis loses to UAB
East Carolina ties/loses to Marshall
7th Place SMU loses to Tulsa
OR
SMU ties Tulsa
Memphis ties/beats UAB

Of course, most of these will be meaningless after Memphis beats UAB tomorrow night, but it is still interesting.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

With the weather turning here Thursday night, it will also obviously be changed in Tulsa.

Current forecast for gametime is 51 degrees with a north wind of 10-15 and no precipitation.

[peaker]

Looking meaningless 4 - 0 Memphis at half. ECU wins in OT. But hey! Win Ponies, Improve your position and seize momentum for El Paso. Anything can happen at the tournament. Look at last year's first round. And this season there is really no clear cut favorite.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Yeah, ECU wins with a goal in OT and Memphis has a 4-0 cakewalk at UAB (which just went final).

Updated standings:

1. 22 (7-2-1) Colorado College
2. 22 (7-2-1) Rice
3. 21 (7-3-0) UCF
4. 21 (6-2-3) East Carolina
5. 19 (6-4-1) Memphis
6. 17 (5-3-2) Tulsa
7. 16 (4-2-4) SMU
8. 12 (3-3-3) Houston
--------
9. 10 (3-7-1) Marshall
10. 9 (3-7-0) UTEP
11. 3 (1-8-0) Southern Miss
12. 3 (1-10-0) UAB

So, SMU will most likely finish 6th with a win or 7th with a draw or loss.

There is a very slight chance we will finish 5th if we win by more than four goals or win by four goals and don't give up more than three goals. If by some strange twist of fate we win 8-4 then SMU and Memphis exhaust all tiebreakers for 5th which would be kind of funny...

Also of note, the eight teams are now set. Even if UTEP and Houston both end up with 12 points Houston has the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Go Ponies!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU: Bodden; Smith, Larson, Bartol, Hartweck; Clarke, Baum, Robinson; Elliott, Redman, Scovill

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

1-1 at the half.

Things are pretty even, although SMU did have the better chances overall.

Tulsa had three quick shots in the first two minutes before the Mustangs settled into things, but shots only ended up 8-7 in favor of Tulsa. Shots on goal are 4-3 for Tulsa. Corners are 3-1 for SMU.

The Hurricane had a nice run up the left side and were able to tap in a cross for a goal in the 33rd minute.

SMU came right back with some pressure, and Shelby Redman ("SR" ) not only drew a foul in the box, but also converted the penalty. The SMU goal was just 48 seconds after the Tulsa goal.

It was a legit penalty too. She put a move on a girl and flat out got tripped.

Tulsa has been very narrow in defense. Courtney Smith, Shelby Redman, and Mallory Baum have been abusing them down the left side all game long. Hopefully, that trend will continue in the second half because it will certainly lead to a second SMU goal.

Go Ponies!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Around C-USA, UCF beat Southern Miss 4-0 this afternoon, and Rice and Houston are goalless at the half. Colorado College and UTEP are just underway.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Tulsa wins 2-1.

The Hurricane came out and played a really nice second half. I don't think SMU even had a shot until around the 70 minute mark.

The Mustangs kept coming though with a lot of pressure over the final 15 minutes - and almost got it to overtime with two corners in the final minute.

Shots for the night were 16-11 for Tulsa as well as 10-5 on goal. Corners were 7-3 to SMU.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The Mustangs will be the 7 seed in the C-USA Tournament, and will face either Rice or UCF depending on the result of the CC-UTEP game.

Rice defeated Houston 1-0 with yet another Lauren Hughes goal.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Colorado College wins 2-0 at UTEP to win the C-USA regular season. Congratulations to the Tigers!

C-USA Standings:

1. 25 (8-2-1) Colorado College
2. 25 (8-2-1) Rice
3. 24 (8-3-0) UCF
4. 21 (6-2-3) East Carolina
5. 20 (6-3-2) Tulsa
6. 19 (6-4-1) Memphis
7. 16 (4-3-4) SMU
8. 12 (3-4-3) Houston
--------
9. 10 (3-7-1) Marshall
10. 9 (3-8-0) UTEP
11. 3 (1-10-0) UAB
12. 3 (1-9-0) Southern Miss

Note - the standings are not final since Houston still plays at Southern Miss on Sunday

But, since the UH-Southern Miss game doesn't affect the C-USA Tournament seedings, here they are:

(8) Houston vs. (1) Colorado College
(7) SMU vs. (2) Rice
(6) Memphis vs. (3) UCF
(5) Tulsa vs. (4) East Carolina

I bet you could have won a lot of money before the season on Memphis playing UCF in the first round!

SMU faces Rice in the first round for the third straight season.

The tournament starts Wednesday in El Paso! Hopefully, C-USA will announce the game times soon.

Go Ponies!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Excellent - we are scheduled in the early evening match Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 31 (All times Central)

Match 1 - (1) Colorado College vs. (8) Houston - 12 p.m.
Match 2 - (4) East Carolina vs. (5) Tulsa - 2:30 p.m.
Match 3 - (2) Rice vs. (7) SMU - 5:30 p.m.
Match 4 - (3) UCF vs. (6) Memphis - 8 p.m

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Not that it matters, but they did cancel the Southern Miss-Houston game scheduled for today, so the conference standings are final.