Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's soccer team will open the quest for an American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament berth when the Cru kicks off the 2011 season today in Georgetown. The UMHB women will face Southwestern University in a 3:00 PM start in the opener for both teams.
The Lady Cru will welcome back 16 letterwinners and eight starters this season. UMHB is coming off an 8-8-1 season in which the Cru narrowly missed claiming a berth in the ASC Championship Tournament. UMHB was picked to finish seventh in the league in the ASC's preseason coaches poll this year.
UMHB returns a pair of players who earned ASC All-Conference honors last season. Junior defender
Camryn Powell and sophomore defender
Alison Bullock were both voted to the All-Conference team and will anchor a defense that also returns the two players who split starting goalkeeper responsibilities last year. Seniors
Erica Harris and
Meredith West combined for three shouts and a 1.97 goals against average last season.
The offense will be led by the return of leading scorers
Jordan Powers,
Taylor Bullock and
Lexy Smith. Powers, a junior midfielder, scored 17 points and tied for the team lead with seven goals. Senior Bullock had six goals and 13 points and senior forward Smith added a team-best four assists and 10 total points.
The Southwestern match opens a three-game road swing against non-conference opponents for UMHB. The Cru will then return home to open ASC play, and the coach is hoping UMHB will be ready to go after a tough road stretch to open the year.
“It gives us a chance to polish up some things that we may not be doing correctly,” Cru head coach Meg Brown said. “Maybe see a few of the kinks we need to work out against some really good teams before we open conference.”
Brown is entering her tenth season as the head coach of the Cru women's soccer program and she guided the Cru women to three straight trips to the ASC Championship Tournament before narrowly missing a berth last year. The UMHB women will open ASC play with a home match against LeTourneau University at the Cru Sportsplex on September 16
th at 2:00 PM.
