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SMU Women's Soccer Comes Up Short At C-USA Leader ECU
Kaitlyn Eidson scores first collegiate goal



Freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Eidson scored her first collegiate goal Sunday at ECU.


Oct. 12, 2008

Box score in PDF Format

Season stats in PDF Format

GREENVILLE, S.C. (SMU) - The SMU women's soccer team completed a lengthy road trip with a visit to Conference USA-leading East Carolina and got a late goal from freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Eidson, but the rally fell just short, as the Mustangs fell, 2-1.

The loss drops the Mustangs to 5-8-1 this year, and 3-3-0 in Conference USA games. ECU improved to 10-3-1 overall, and 5-0-1 in C-USA games.

The game was almost a tie on the stat sheet. ECU outshot the Mustangs by one, 12-11, while SMU earned three corner kicks to just one for ECU. Freshman SMU goalkeeper Courtney Webb made six saves, while her counterpart in the opposing goal, Amber Campbell, made five.

East Carolina got on the board first with a goal from Alexis Foltz in the 37th minute that gave her team a 1-0 lead that would hold up through the first half. ECU extended its lead in the 76th minute when Amanda Malkiewicz scored what proved to be the game-winner.

Her assist gave Shepherd six points this season, tying her with senior forward Caitlin Carter and freshman midfielder Dylan Jordan for the team scoring lead.

But the Mustangs battled back when sophomore Lauren Shepherd slid a long through ball to Eidson, who beat Campbell under the crossbar to close the gap on the scoreboard to a single goal.

The Mustangs now return home to host Memphis at 7 p.m. Friday and UAB at 1 p.m. Sunday.

ktownponyfan wrote:SMU Women's Soccer Comes Up Short At C-USA Leader ECU
Kaitlyn Eidson scores first collegiate goal

Congrats!!! You should be very proud!

Tough road trip and too bad the girls came up short on Sunday but it was not their best showing. It will be nice to be home this weekend.

Pony Up!

Love how this team has improved.

Beat Memphis and UAB!

"This team has improved"... the program has continued to get worse. How can we be happy about a one goal win at Marshall and a loss at ECU - come on, are we really serious about this program? This is a program that should be winning C-USA and making a push to be in the top 20 nationally...EVERY YEAR! Just like the gold old days under Van Linder and Cossaboon!

Enough hiding behind a weak excuse of "the freshman" - when Erwin took over he had a very experienced and talented team. He has run them into the ground (literally) and now we are happy about sitting in 7th place in C-USA. If we do not win two games this weekend I think we may be sitting at home during the tournament once again!

Please - can we have some common sense and have someone rescue this program from the grip of mediocrity? Anyone???

I have to admit I'm a bit confused about the "you should be proud" and "look how we've improved" comments. I'm watching a team that used to be consistently top-20, now losing to teams that, frankly, we used to laugh at.

I understand completely that the team is young, and I understand that all programs have down years, and I have no problem sticking with a program during a down year, but I cannot fathom the comments that seem to forget that we were once much, much better than this, and it wasnt that long ago. We had a long standard of success and achievement in soccer, a standard we are not currently living up to. Please, please, please, let's not start pretending that a season like this is praiseworthy, or even acceptable. When you atart telling yourself things like that, you begin to accept mediocrity, and there begins the slide downward, a slide that some programs never recover from.

I read the "should be proud" comment as directed to Eidson for her first goal, not to be proud for playing close.

orsini for president wrote:"This team has improved"... the program has continued to get worse. How can we be happy about a one goal win at Marshall and a loss at ECU - come on, are we really serious about this program? This is a program that should be winning C-USA and making a push to be in the top 20 nationally...EVERY YEAR! Just like the gold old days under Van Linder and Cossaboon!

Enough hiding behind a weak excuse of "the freshman" - when Erwin took over he had a very experienced and talented team. He has run them into the ground (literally) and now we are happy about sitting in 7th place in C-USA. If we do not win two games this weekend I think we may be sitting at home during the tournament once again!

Please - can we have some common sense and have someone rescue this program from the grip of mediocrity? Anyone???

There's no way to get around the fact that there are all of those freshmen on the team - they're there. Now you have what, four opening day starters out? So like it or not, those freshmen are playing, and they're playing better. Coach Erwin didn't destroy this program. That started with the nuclear bomb that was Greg Ryan, who took one of the most talented teams in the country and made it mediocre at best. Van Linder was OK - he got some wins out of his team, but there was little improvement, and no visible upgrade in recruiting. Cossaboon's approach made Erwin's seem like a a 1960s love-in, and he (Coss) had the program on the brink of implosion.

Nobody has forgotten the records of years gone by, but the fact it that Coach Erwin didn't inherit a team with a Lisa Cole, a Kara Lee or a Kim Harvey on it. There's no Tara Comfort, no Erin Poole and no Danielle Garrett. He did inherit some very good players, however - just not enough of them. So he has had to re-stock his roster, and that is done with ... wait for it ... freshmen. By the looks of things, he has found some very good ones.

When I said I love the improvement this team has made, I was talking about in comparison to the team that wandered around on the field in August, looking pretty lost. I wasn't saying this was the same kind of team that we've had go deep in the NCAAs before. This team was talented players then, too, but the majority of them had not played together. Compare that team to the team that shut out UTEP, for example, and the progress is like night and day.

Look at June Jones' football team. I don't see Eric Dickerson and Don Meredith out there, but the growth that team - which has a lot of freshmen playing key roles - has shown since the beginning of the season is very encouraging, and looks like a foundation for a solid future. That's what I'm saying about this team, as well. Is it a championship team yet? No, of course not. But there are pieces being put in place, and it looks like some of those pieces are starting to fit.

I can't believe no one sees that the real issue is that Women's Soccer is a whole new ballgame out there. Every team in CUSA is getting great players, ODP quality and plenty of dedication. Women's sports have grown up. There are many many more well trained talented players out there, so the Dallas connection is not enough to make a contending team anymore. This conference has dominating parity. This team has not faced another team (in CUSA) that they could not have beaten. If we have a good weekend, we will go into the conference tournament with the potential to win it all. That being said, there are also about 7 other teams out there with the same potential. That being said, those other teams do not have the depth of freshmen talent that we do, so remain steadfast. I believe.

Soccerfan08 wrote:I can't believe no one sees that the real issue is that Women's Soccer is a whole new ballgame out there. Every team in CUSA is getting great players, ODP quality and plenty of dedication. Women's sports have grown up. There are many many more well trained talented players out there, so the Dallas connection is not enough to make a contending team anymore. This conference has dominating parity. This team has not faced another team (in CUSA) that they could not have beaten. If we have a good weekend, we will go into the conference tournament with the potential to win it all. That being said, there are also about 7 other teams out there with the same potential. That being said, those other teams do not have the depth of freshmen talent that we do, so remain steadfast. I believe.

That's very true, and a good point. Years ago, we'd have a few hard games and a bunch where we'd roll through teams with zero talent.

We could go one-and-done in the conference tournament, or we could win it, even with the injuries we've suffered this year. Should be fun to watch.

I believe, too.

Olivia O'Rear (53 shots and 13 goals in 2006), Kimber Bailey (58 shots and 9 goals in 2006), Krystal Bailey (43 shots and 5 goals in 2006), Marisa Schieda (15 shots and 3 goals in 2006), Kristen Moran (15 shots and 2 goals in 2006), and Jena Lind (13 shots and 2 goals in 2006) are all gone since the fall of 2006. These six players accounted for 197 shots and 34 goals in 2006.

Whose responsibility was it to replace this talent?

When today's sophomores signed on February 7, 2007, Erwin had been on the job for 8 days. When today's freshmen signed on February 6, 2008, Erwin had been on the job for barely a year in a sport where the top talent has typically verbally committed at least a year prior to National Signing Day. Frankly, I'm surprised at the talent in this year's freshman class given the late start in recruiting.

Erwin's doing a great job with the hand he was dealt, and it's only a matter of a couple more recruiting classes before he has the women's soccer program back to where it belongs.

GO MUSTANGS!

Absolutely he is. Frankly, he's getting more good players than I imagined he would, and he's striking a nice balance between a sink-or-swim approach with his freshmen and allowing the upperclassmen (Phillips, Raad, Peabody, et al) to lead. Keep it up, Coach.

newmustangfan wrote:Olivia O'Rear (53 shots and 13 goals in 2006), Kimber Bailey (58 shots and 9 goals in 2006), Krystal Bailey (43 shots and 5 goals in 2006), Marisa Schieda (15 shots and 3 goals in 2006), Kristen Moran (15 shots and 2 goals in 2006), and Jena Lind (13 shots and 2 goals in 2006) are all gone since the fall of 2006. These six players accounted for 197 shots and 34 goals in 2006.

Whose responsibility was it to replace this talent?

When today's sophomores signed on February 7, 2007, Erwin had been on the job for 8 days. When today's freshmen signed on February 6, 2008, Erwin had been on the job for barely a year in a sport where the top talent has typically verbally committed at least a year prior to National Signing Day. Frankly, I'm surprised at the talent in this year's freshman class given the late start in recruiting.

Erwin's doing a great job with the hand he was dealt, and it's only a matter of a couple more recruiting classes before he has the women's soccer program back to where it belongs.

GO MUSTANGS!

Good post. Actually has facts in it instead of some of the knee jerk stuff we hear so often. Keep it up ladies.

Yes - great statistics. But you have to remember a few things about "Erwins great job" and your stats. 1. Moran only played half the games of 2006 (injured) and 2 goals is not very prolific; 2. Moran and O'Rear are the only two players that Erwin did not have last year from your list and; 3. even with the Baileys, Lind etc. we still did not make it to the C-USA Tournament.

There is much more to be said, but not fair to the girls. Recruiting in women's soccer is done two years in advance so really Erwin's first class will be 2010 (there are a couple of exceptions to the 2009 class) so we should judge him on that. It is well known around the college recruiting world that everything is not right, or well, on the hilltop. When you look at the schools around us, who we used to outshine every year and they are now nationally ranked and taking players out of Dallas (no, not ND, A&M, or UT but TCU and OSU), what does our future hold?

We all hope for five wins to finish up the year. We all agree there is talent there and we have good enough athletes. The question remains, do our players want to play for Erwin (check out the transfer rate next year or the group that wishes Cossaboon had not "imploded" his team and was still leading the team to championships and the NCAA tournament) and does he have the ability as a coach and manager of players to get us to the conference tournament and push on to the NCAA's.

Lets check back in a few weeks.

Of the six players I mentioned from the 2006 roster, it is true that O'Rear and Moran were the only ones not on the roster in 2007. But to say that Erwin "had" Krystal Bailey in 2007 is misleading. She played in only six games, had 3 shots and no goals. Between the graduation of Olivia O'Rear and the injury to Krystal Bailey, the team lost 93 shots and 18 goals between 2006 and 2007. And apparently Cossaboon did nothing to replace this productivity. Blame Erwin if you want to but he was in Florida.

As far as things not being right in the recruiting world on the hilltop, I've seen a verbal commitment list, and SMU is loaded with talented 09's and 10's primarily from North Texas, Oklahoma, and California. If you would like to see the list, private message me and I'll send you the link.

And finally, to compare SMU's program to TCU's is again misleading. Abdalla is in his 4th year at TCU and has had two more years to get his program up and running. And despite that, TCU chose to play a non-conference schedule this year that included Stephen F. Austin, Xavier (1-11-1), Northern Arizona, East Tennessee State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, UTSA, and Air Force (3-11-0). Contrast that with an SMU non-conference schedule that included Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Cal St.- Fullerton.

Frankly, I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

orsini for president wrote:Yes - great statistics. But you have to remember a few things about "Erwins great job" and your stats. 1. Moran only played half the games of 2006 (injured) and 2 goals is not very prolific; 2. Moran and O'Rear are the only two players that Erwin did not have last year from your list and; 3. even with the Baileys, Lind etc. we still did not make it to the C-USA Tournament.

There is much more to be said, but not fair to the girls. Recruiting in women's soccer is done two years in advance so really Erwin's first class will be 2010 (there are a couple of exceptions to the 2009 class) so we should judge him on that. It is well known around the college recruiting world that everything is not right, or well, on the hilltop. When you look at the schools around us, who we used to outshine every year and they are now nationally ranked and taking players out of Dallas (no, not ND, A&M, or UT but TCU and OSU), what does our future hold?

We all hope for five wins to finish up the year. We all agree there is talent there and we have good enough athletes. The question remains, do our players want to play for Erwin (check out the transfer rate next year or the group that wishes Cossaboon had not "imploded" his team and was still leading the team to championships and the NCAA tournament) and does he have the ability as a coach and manager of players to get us to the conference tournament and push on to the NCAA's.

Lets check back in a few weeks.

I admit I know nothing about what is currently going on with this team. But you do sound like a disgruntled parent or player (ex-player). I do know a lot about soccer and feel that Erwin if given the chance will do well with this program. Give him a chance.