W-Soccer: SMU at Marshall

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The Mustangs head to scenic Huntington, West Virginia to face Marshall Sunday with a noon start.

SMU (6-6-3, 2-2-3) is coming off an unlucky 0-0 draw at East Carolina Friday night. The Mustangs had a 16-1 corner advantage, hit a crossbar in OT, and saw two fantastic saves against them. The Thundering Herd (6-8-1, 2-4-1) dropped a home match to Tulsa 2-0.

The Mustangs played a lot of players a lot of minutes Friday - it will be essential to have a solid and energetic performance Sunday to get three points and get back in the thick of the conference race.

Current C-USA standings:

1. 16 (5-1-1) Rice
2. 15 (5-2-0) Memphis
3. 14 (4-1-2) East Carolina
4. 13 (4-2-1) Colorado College
5. 12 (4-3-0) UCF
6. 10 (3-3-1) Tulsa
7. 9 (3-4-0) UTEP
8. 9 (2-2-3) SMU
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9. 7 (2-4-1) Marshall
10. 6 (1-2-3) Houston
11. 3 (1-5-0) Southern Miss
12. 3 (1-6-0) UAB

For some context and perspective on the 2012 SMU season, here is this morning's unadjusted RPI rankings after the Friday games for the C-USA teams:

29. UCF
43. Memphis
51. Colorado College
56. SMU
67. Rice
79. ECU
100. Tulsa
139. Houston
181. Marshall
183. UTEP
192. Southern Miss
268. UAB

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

As if it isn't always a strange trip to play in Huntington under somewhat normal circumstances, today's game is being played at a local high school stadium.

Marshall's soccer stadium is unavailable this season since the school is in the middle of a major project involving a new indoor practice facility and soccer stadium.

Good for them - I hope we get ours underway soon!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU: Bodden; Smith, Larson, Bartol, Hartweck; Clarke, Baum, Robinson; Elliott, Redman, Scovill

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU 1, Marshall 0!!!!

Olivia Elliott with a 20th minute goal!

SMU dominating early with an 8-1 advantage in shots so far.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

1-0 SMU at the half.

Shots 11-4 and shots on goal 3-2 for SMU. Corners even at 3-3.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

FINAL SMU 1, Marshall 0!!!!

That was excruciating.

Shots ended 16-7 for SMU, but Marshall ended up with a 4-3 advantage in shots on goal. SMU had the edge in corners 5-4.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Overall, a good weekend for the Mustangs. Obviously, a bit more goal scoring would have made it a great weekend but at least we were able to get four points and move back up into the heart of the C-USA standings. On the bright side, even though there was only one goal, SMU still had a ton of possession and was able to generate a ton of offensive chances. Like CP keeps saying, we are playing attractive soccer and the goals will eventually come.

A ton of credit definitely has to go to the entire team for today's effort. After playing 110 tough minutes Friday night - including having seven players play the entire 110 minutes, travelling from Greenville to Huntington on Saturday (I'm sure that is just barrels of fun), and then playing on a high school field, the Mustangs were able to take care of business and get a crucial conference win on the road.

Special mention to the back four of Courtney Smith, Jessica Bartol, Rachael Larson, and Shelby Hartweck - and to goalkeeper Lauryn Bodden, who all played 200 minutes on the road this weekend and didn't give up a single goal!

SMU is finally back at home next weekend! GO PONIES!!!!!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

All of today's C-USA games are final. Rice survives a furious comeback by UAB, UCF rescues a win at UTEP with a late goal, ECU plays another 110 minutes without any goals - but the stunning result of the day is Houston going into Memphis and getting a 1-0 win.

UCF 1, UTEP 0
SMU 1, Marshall 0
Tulsa 0, ECU 0 (2OT)
Southern Miss 0, Colorado College 1
Rice 3, UAB 2
Houston 1, Memphis 0

1. 19 (6-1-1) Rice
2. 16 (5-2-1) Colorado College
3. 15 (5-3-0) Memphis
4. 15 (5-3-0) UCF
5. 15 (4-1-3) East Carolina
6. 12 (3-2-3) SMU
7. 11 (3-3-2) Tulsa
8. 9 (3-5-0) UTEP
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9. 9 (2-2-3) Houston
10. 7 (2-5-1) Marshall
11. 3 (1-6-0) Southern Miss
12. 3 (1-7-0) UAB

Third place through ninth place separated by six points. These last two weekends of the regular season are going to be exciting!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

If you didn't see this, Lauryn Bodden was mentioned in the ESPN Capital One Cup Impact Performances this weekend for our win over UCF where she had seven saves (and they even spelled her name correctly!):

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8503884

Obviously, women's soccer doesn't get much media coverage, so to have an SMU women's soccer mention on a national platform like ESPN is pretty cool.

[HorsePower]

How many make the C-USA tournament? Where is it?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

How many make the C-USA tournament? Where is it?

Eight teams make the tournament - which is in El Paso Oct. 31-Nov. 4.