The last time the Mustangs took the field, Sophomore Leobardo Vazquez posted his first career hat trick, earning him a trio of awards on the national and conference level. SMU is hoping for an equal offensive effort from its entire team on Wednesday when it travels to Memphis, Tenn. to take on the Tigers.
Vazquez was one of 11 other student-athletes selected to the topdrawesoccer.com National Team of the Week and was honored as the Conference Offensive Player of the Week, as well as College Player of the Week for Dallassoccernews.com.
Vazquez is the fourth Mustang to garner recognition in the AAC; he joins senior Jaime Ibarra, sophomore Alfred Koromaand, and first-year Deshawon Nembhard who have all won some sort of AAC honor this season.
Ibarra was named the Conference Goalkeeper of the Week Sept. 23 and Nembhard was named the Rookie of the Week ept. 16, while Koroma has made the conference honor roll on several occasions.
Ibarra is fourth in both saves and saves-per-game in the AAC and has registered 47 saves, while averaging 3.62 per game. Koroma sits tied for fourth in the conference with two match winners and 10th in shots with 32. Nembhard is tied for seventh with three assists and tied for eighth with .231 assists-per-game.
Memphis is eighth in the American Athletic Conference standings with a conference record of 2-4.
The Tigers are led by senior Mark Sherrod, who leads the team with 12 points (five goals and two assists) while sophomore Cody Uzcategui has registerd 40 saves in 14 games in goal. Uzcategui has recorded five shut-outs and has a 1.12 goals-against average.
SMU has a history of being out-shot by its opponets, which could spell trouble Wednesday. Memphis has outshot its opponents 203-161.
The Mustangs have an all-time record of 8-2 over the Tigers but one of its two losses came in 2012 when Memphis outlasted SMU for a 2-1 victory.