In beautiful Hawaii the Lady Mustangs soccer team (15-3-3)captured their fourth-straight, and sixth overall, Western AthleticConference title. With the title SMU earned a bid to the NCAAtournament which begins this Friday.
The beautiful sights of Honolulu did not distract SMU from thetask at hand. Lead by head-coach John Cossaboon, SMU defeated Tulsa(7-10-4) in a close 1-0 match to advance to the championship game.In the final game SMU met Rice (14-4-3) again in a rematch of lastyear’s WAC Championship in which the Lady Mustangs defeatedRice 2-1.
SMU scored twice in the first half to clinch the title with a2-0 final score. Olivia O’Rear, who according toSMUMustangs.com has been “the hottest player in the league asof late,” scored her 14th goal of the year on an assist byfreshman Autumn Browning. The Mustang’s second goal came fromErin MacCallum’s foot after a cross from Amanda Jordan.
Amanda Clark, SMU’s goalkeeper and captain, made theAll-Tournament WAC Team after posting a shutout on the team’s2-0 victory Along with Clark, three other SMU players receivedAll-Tournament honors. O’Rear earned the tournament’sMVP distinction while Susanne Collins and Kimber Bailey made theAll-Tournament WAC team.
SMU also posted four players on the 2004 All- WAC first teamannounced by the WAC last week. Bailey earned the WAC Freshman ofthe Year honor; SMU players have clinched this award five times inthe last six years. O’Rear, Collins, Bailey and AdriaCampbell made the All-WAC First Team. And forward Jill Heinemannmade the All-WAC Second Team.
SMU climbed the NSCAA/Adidas National Poll back to the No. 22position finishing their regular season with a 15-3-3 record. TheSoccerTimes.com poll, Soccer America poll and SoccerBuzz.com alsoranked SMU among the top 25 teams in the nation. According toSMUMustangs.com SMU “has dominated the women’s soccerscene in the WAC since 1996, posting a 53-6-4 conference recordduring that time.” The Mustangs have certainly gainedmomentum for the upcoming NCAA tournament as they currently ride ona four game winning streak with no goals scored by their opponentsin the last four games.
SMU’s postseason play begins in Austin with the NCAATournament. The team will take on West Virginia (14-5-0) on Fridayat 4:30 p.m. at the University of Texas’ Myers Stadium. Witha victory the Lady Mustangs will face the winner of the UT (13-6-2)and North Texas (15-5-1) game scheduled to kick-off at 7 p.m. onFriday at UT.
SMU posts a 7-8-1 record in NCAA Tournament play since 1990. Theupcoming match, however, has no history as SMU has never playedWest Virginia.
