Women's Soccer - C-USA honors for Eidson,Baum,Smith,Clarke

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Senior D Kaitlyn Eidson and junior MF Mallory Baum were named to the C-USA All-Conference first team!

Sophomore D Courtney Smith was named to the third team, and MF Rikki Clarke was named to the All-Freshman team.

Congratulations to all and let's play three matches this week!

The C-USA release:

http://conferenceusa.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/110111aaf.html

The SMU release:

http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/110111aad.html

[LoudnProudPonyFan]

Nicely done ladies!! You deserve the accolades. Great season.

Question for you fans out there. Based on our third place finish sure seems like SMU is under-represented amongst the all conference teams. Rice has more, UCF has more, UTEP the same number as us yet we were seeded higher. I don't get how a better season does not equate to a better all conference team result. I mean they completely overlooked our girls for second team. Our team deserves better!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Nicely done ladies!! You deserve the accolades. Great season.

Question for you fans out there. Based on our third place finish sure seems like SMU is under-represented amongst the all conference teams. Rice has more, UCF has more, UTEP the same number as us yet we were seeded higher. I don't get how a better season does not equate to a better all conference team result. I mean they completely overlooked our girls for second team. Our team deserves better!

I certainly agree in principle, but realistically who else could you put on one of the teams? Obviously we are biased since we see them every game, but since the teams are chosen mainly on statistics it's hard to make a case for more individual representation. Look at the C-USA stats:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/c-usa/sports/w-soccer/auto_pdf/2011-12/stats/season_stats.pdf

Obviously if Kenzie Scovill played the whole season and netted a few more goals, she probably would have made the third team. She only ended up one goal short of finishing in the top 10 in the conference, and with four more games she very likely would have scored one or two more goals.

This is also the second straight season Courtney Webb has put up really nice numbers, but we give up so few shots and unfortunately a lot of them end up being good shots so her save percentage ends up too low to really be considered for the third team.

Rikki Clarke might have made a case for third team with a full season. The fact she still made the All-Freshman team while missing four conference games and playing limited minutes in four others shows what the other coaches think of her.

One point towards your argument is certainly Courtney Smith. It was an absolute joke she didn't make the All-Freshman team last season, and every single coach in the conference has to be shaking in their boots every time Smith stands over a free kick or corner (not to mention the throw-ins and the solid defense). I would think a spot on the second team would have been justified - but she will certainly get her accolades in the future if she continues to develop like she has.

I think the most impressive part of of the announcement was Mallory Baum making first team, when she wasn't even on the All-Conference team radar before the season. She has had a huge year, and if they kept touches stats at this level I wouldn't be surprised if she had close to twice the number of times on the ball as anybody else on the team. To see the coaches recognize her on the first team really shows the impact she is making on the field and on tape when they prepare to face SMU.

But while the individual honors are nice and fun to discuss, we do have some team business to take care of starting this afternoon!

Go Ponies!

[Hoofprint]

Smith should have been on the first team, and I would say Cox, Webb and maybe Clarke should have been on the second or third team.

My guess is that the reason we didn't get better representation is because we scored so few goals. I just looked it up. We had only two players get into double digits on points (Scovill had 11 and Gaines had 10). Not horrible numbers, but those should be your middle-of-the-pack scorers, not your leaders.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Smith should have been on the first team, and I would say Cox, Webb and maybe Clarke should have been on the second or third team.

My guess is that the reason we didn't get better representation is because we scored so few goals. I just looked it up. We had only two players get into double digits on points (Scovill had 11 and Gaines had 10). Not horrible numbers, but those should be your middle-of-the-pack scorers, not your leaders.

Smith finished with 10 points after her goal yesterday, but obviously your point is still very valid.

The three major questions going into the season were:

1. Who would take over for Lauren Shepherd at right back
2. How would we handle little depth in midfield (made even more pressing by the Taylor Robinson injury in the exhibition game)
3. Could we score more goals this season to keep us from being forced to play shutout after shutout

Shelby Hartweck and Rachael Larson were more than adequate at right back this season, and the team managed midfield very well.

But, we didn't score more goals - and unfortunately it was a major factor in the team not being able to take the next step this season.