With a new season comes a new class of talent. This year’s women’s soccer team plays host to 15 freshmen, six sophomores, four juniors and just two seniors – two seniors who have yet to reach the NCAA Tournament since their freshman year.
Now, as the 2009 season begins on Friday night with a season road opener against Oral Roberts University, the team has their goal set at nothing less of becoming Conference USA champions on their home field.
“Every day when we went to training I never had to tell the kids to work hard,” head coach Brent Erwin said.
Friday’s game, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., has the SMU Mustangs taking on the Golden Eagles just up the road in Tulsa.
With two exhibition matches against Central Oklahoma and Drury already under their belt, Oral Roberts saw last season come to a close earlier than they hoped for, going just 6-10-1 overall and 3-5-0 in the Summit League.
The Mustangs will look for their fourth consecutive win over the Golden Eagles, having defeated Oral Roberts in each of the teams’ last three match-ups. SMU holds a 6-0-1 all-time record over the Golden Eagles, including a 4-0 shutout in the last meeting between the teams in 2006 at Westcott Field.
“It’s a not a team we know much about,” Erwin said. “Openers are just a different beast because anyone can win that first game.”
Going 19-4 in season openers, SMU has won all five of their road openers, winning by an average of nearly two points in each game. Friday’s game will be head coach Brent Erwin’s first season opener on the road in his three years on the Hilltop.
“It shows that we can win matches, but I don’t get too into stats because every opponent is different,” Erwin said. “We’re going to show up for the game and do our best to win. If we win, it won’t have anything to do with our past five wins on the road.”
Erwin will look to his returning players to help carry the team through the season. But classification does not matter to Erwin when it comes to forming a starting roster.
“They are all just players,” said Erwin. “Once we get them out there, they are competing to play with each other.”
This means that just because someone is a grade ahead they are guaranteed to play. Erwin instead compares each player on ability rather than age.
Returning to the field for SMU is the 2008 leading scorer, sophomore Logan May, a member of the C-USA All-Freshman team last year, with three goals and two assists in her first year at SMU.
Defensive powerhouses, junior Kristin Medeiros and preseason All-Conference player senior Kim Peabody, return to the Mustang’s back field, accompanied by sophomore Courtney Webb at goalkeeper. Last season, Webb posted 55 saves, allowing an average of 1.24 goals per game.
Peabody, a 5-foot-9 forward from St. Louis, Mo., had three shots and one shot on goal in the Mustangs’ 2006 win over ORU.
Medeiros, coming off a two-goal win in the Mustang’s 3-2 opening exhibition win over Stephen F. Austin on Aug.11, is already off to a strong start, putting SMU up 3-0 for the victory.
Last season, the Mustangs finished eighth in C-USA polls, going 6-13-1 overall and 4-7-0 in C-USA. On the road, SMU was 3-7-0. The 2008 season came to a close in a first round loss to the University of Houston in the C-USA Tournament.
“Everybody’s done great so far,” Erwin said. “We had a great pre season.”
The Mustangs will play their first game at Westcott Field on Sept. 4 against the University of North Texas at 8 p.m.
