After a grueling two game road trip that saw the Mustangs fall to Nebraska (4-0) and Kansas (3-0), SMU looks to capture its first ‘W’ of the 2014 season when it hosts Texas Southern and Missouri this weekend.
SMU has never faced Texas Southern before, so the women have an opportunity to start the all-time series on the right foot with a win.
This is only the second season that Texas Southern has had a women’s soccer program. In its inaugural season, Texas Southern posted a 3-12-0 record- defeating only Alcorn State, Miisissippi Valley State, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Even though it is only the Lady Tiger’s second season, they are already breaking in their second head coach- 2014 is Kathryn Sanders first season at the helm for Texas Southern.
It is a weekend of firsts for SMU as Sunday’s match against Missouri is also the first ever meeting between the two programs.
Missouri will present a much tougher challenge than Texas Southern as it is more experienced.
The Tigers have eight starters returning this season. In 2013 those eight played on a team that finished 8-9-3. Missouri finished ninth in the Southeastern conference with a conference record of 4-4-3.
Missouri already has a couple of games under its belt after opoening up its season at the Penn State Invitational last weekend.
The Tigers tied Syracuse 0-0 after playing two overtimes in its opening match. Missouri then fell to 3-2 to No.10 West Virginia in their second match.
Apparently, Missouri is pleased with the performance of its women’s soccer program over two decades; this will be head coach Bryan Blitz’s 19 year as the head coach for the Tigers.
Both Texas Southern and Missouri will test the Mustangs resolve as they try to figure out their situation in goal.
The Mustangs have only two goalies on their roster, senior Lauryn Bodden and junior Shannon Maroney, but both are sidelined with injures for the foreseeable future.
On Tuesday, SMU athletics issued an email on behalf of the Women’s team calling for undergrads with experience playing goalie.
So far, there has been no announcement whether a replacement keeper has been found.
Friday’s match against Texas Southern and Sunday’s match against Missouri will both kickoff at 7 p.m. on Westcott Field.
What you need to know about the 2014 Mustangs:
-Prior to the kickoff of the 2014 season, the American Athletic Conference predicted SMU to finish fifth in the the conference.Last season, SMU finished finished eighth in the AAC in 2013 with a 3-5-1 conference record.
-The Mustangs also had three players take home individual pre-season accolades.
Shelby Redman was named to the Preseason All-AAC Team as a forward. Redman, an Austin, Texas, native was named Second Team All-AAC in 2013 after leading the Mustangs in goals with eight.
Taylor Barg, Rikki Clarke, and Redman also received preseason accolades from College Sports Madness. Barg was named to the first team, while Clarke and Redman were given second team honors.
-SMU has also added eight freshmen and one transfer to their 2014 roster.
Sophomore Paige Jacobs transferred to SMU from Oklahoma where she was named to the All-Big 12 Newcomer team as a freshman.
Two freshmen, Claire Oates and Vanessa Valadez, tallied points in SMU’s exhibition match against Oklahoma State. Oates scored a second half goal, while Valadez recorded an assist on Kelsey Gorney’s goal.
