Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Women's Soccer Meets Familiar Foes
9/14/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 14, 2004
Florida Atlantic University's women's soccer team heads to Orlando and Tampa this weekend to face two familiar in-state rivals, the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida. The Lady Owls start Atlantic Sun Conference play on Thursday at 7 pm against UCF, in a rematch of last year's A-Sun finals, before playing USF on Saturday at 4 pm. UCF holds a 14-4-1 all-time series lead while USF leads 6-3 in the series.
FAU (2-1-1), ranked 15th in the Southeast Region by SoccerBuzz, went 1-0-1 over the weekend after defeating the College of Charleston 2-1 and tying American University 1-1 at the Charleston Soccer Classic. The Lady Owls defensive unit, led by Janine Aylward, Lisa Rife, Cristina Rodriguez, Meredith White and Alicia Tirelli, has allowed only four goals this season with one shutout. The quartet also held two of its four opponents without a shot in the first half.
Sophomore keeper Megan Coyne has stepped up tremendously with the departure of Molly Keating, going 2-1-1 with a 0.93 GAA (ranked fifth in the A-Sun) and one shutout. She recorded a career high seven saves in the win over Charleston and followed that up by allowing one-goal in a career high 110 minutes against American. Coyne has already eclipsed her career minutes played and saves in four games.
The Lady Owls will be looking for redemption against the Knights (5-1-1) after falling 3-0 in penalty kicks of the A-Sun final. Kelly Hoffmann tied the game with less than two minutes remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime, but the Lady Owls failed to capitalize in penalty kicks, missing on their first three attempts. FAU defeated UCF 2-1 last year in the regular season when Kari Fernandez scored the game-winning goal in the 75th minute off of an Aylward cross.
The Knights, ranked eighth in the Southeast, are led by Becca Eshelmann. She leads the team with five assists (second in the A-Sun) and nine points (tied for sixth in the A-Sun), while goalkeeper Julie Snaman, who was named A-Sun Defensive Player-of-the-Week, leads the conference with a 0.43 GAA and three shutouts. Since Brian Dooley took over the program, FAU has gone 3-4-1 against UCF.
USF (1-1-1) has seen two of its last three games postponed due to hurricane warnings. The two teams last met September 2003 as the Lady Owls defeated the Bulls 1-0. Florida Atlantic started the series 0-3 but has gone 3-3 since Brian Dooley took over. Katie Reed and Erica Lewis share the team lead in goals and points while Breck Bankester has a 0.98 GAA, a .824 save percentage and one shutout in net.
FAU can tie the program record (1993) for best start (.750) with two wins this weekend. With a start this weekend, Janine Aylward will pass Tara O'Brien for fourth all-time in games started at FAU.
