Good news or bad news? Ok, good news first. The men’ssoccer team traveled into St. Louis over the weekend and left withthe conference championship. The women’s volleyball teamcontinued to roll right through WAC play, ending the regular seasonwith another win.
Now, for the weekend’s bad news. For the third time in asmany years the women’s soccer team was eliminated from thenational tournament by Texas A&M. The Lady Mustangs fell 4-1 inpenalty kicks. Kim Harvey posted her 28th goal on the season, whichturned out to be the final goal of her successful Mustang career.The ladies finished the season with a 17-3-2 record. Assistantcoach, Stewart Brown said the early lead put the Mustangs on thedefensive.
“We scored early and then we just sat back; they stillplayed hard,” Stewart said. “I guess now we look tonext year.”
The men’s soccer game also ended regulation with a tiescore. The Ponies trailed after only 23 minutes of play. Itwasn’t until the 73rd minute before the Mustangs found theequalizer. Ryan Latham found the back of the net and knotted thescore at 1-1. After two scoreless overtime periods, the men linedup for penalty kicks. The men had a little more luck in theirattempts than the ladies. Kevin Hudson knocked home the game winner(4-3) and the Ponies hoisted the MVC tournament crown. The win alsogave the Mustangs an automatic bid to the national tournament. Themen travel to California to play Santa Clara in the openinground.
Mustang defender Ugo Ihemelu is glad to be moving on.
“We played well over the weekend,” Ihemelu said.”The guys on the team are excited to keep playing.”
Volleyball
The women’s volleyball team didn’t need any extratime of any sort to finish off the regular season. The LadyMustangs dropped visiting UTEP in three straight games. SMUfinished the regular season with a record of 22-6. The Poniesreceived the second seed in the WAC tournament and will face La.Tech. in Reno, Nevada this weekend. The 22 regular season wins is arecord for the young Mustang program. In only it’s eighthyear of existence, the young program looks for it’s firstnational tournament bid.
Men’s swimming
The men’s swimming and diving team opened with two winsover the weekend. The men defeated the University ofLouisiana-Monroe 63-32 and Centenary 86-4 to open the season.
Equestrian
The equestrian team started off the inaugural season in theright direction. The Lady Mustangs placed first in two differentclasses, demanding attention from the nationally-ranked programs onhand.
Cross Country
Both Karin van Rooyen and Dalibor Balgac received bids to thecross-country national championships. Van Rooyen placed second inthe women’s regional and Balgac placed sixth in themen’s regional.
Basketball
On a side note, the men’s and women’s basketballseason’s are just around the corner. The women open MondayNov. 24 against rival TCU at Moody Coliseum. The men start theaction against UT-Pan American on Saturday. The Ponies home openeris Dec. 1 against Texas Tech.
Mustang Maniac sign-up is still available. All returning Maniacsmust trade in their old member cards for this year’s card inthe marketing department in Moody. Maniacs will be the firststudents eligible for student section tickets to men’s andwomen’s home games.
