Women's soccer lands four on all-conference teams

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Four Mustangs Grab All-Conference Honors
Baum, Redman, Clarke, Smith All Earn Recognition

Oct. 30, 2012

IRVING, Texas (SMU) - The Conference USA begins tomorrow in El Paso, Texas, but the excitement for the SMU Mustangs started a day early. Four Mustangs snagged All-Conference recognition, the league office announced on Tuesday.

Mallory Baum earned First Team All-C-USA for the second straight season. Baum continued her solid midfield play in 2012, something she has carried with her all four years at SMU. Baum made the All-Freshman team in 2009. This season, the Keller, Texas, native has tallied 10 points (2g, 6a). One of Baum's goals was a penalty kick game-winner against UTEP on Sept. 28. Baum was also acknowledged for her schoolwork and community leadership with a nomination for the Senior CLASS Award in September.

Shelby Redman was tagged as a Second Team All-C-USA honoree after a breakout season that saw Redman post a team-leading 22 points (8g, 6a). The sophomore was second on the team in goals and led the team in shots with 59. Redman has two game-winners in 2012, including a thrilling last-second 40-yard bomb that lifted SMU past rival TCU in Fort Worth.

Rikki Clarke also took Second Team All-Conference recognition. The sophomore midfielder tied for fourth on the team in points with 10 (3g, 4a), with all three of her goals coming during conference play. Clarke was an All-Freshman team member a year ago.

Courtney Smith, a defender from Plano, Texas, had another solid season and earned Third Team All-C-USA honors for the second consecutive year. Smith posted a league-leading nine assists, and always made SMU a threat on the attack when the ball was on her left foot. Smith takes a majority of the Mustangs' set pieces, and is usually able to place the ball with extreme precision, giving SMU's offense an extra boost in every game. Smith is currently 18th in the nation in assists.

SMU will play Rice in the first round of the C-USA Tournament for the third year in a row tomorrow. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. CT.

[giacfsp]

How is Kenzie Scovill not on any of those teams? Wasn't she one of the leading scorers in the conference?

OK, just looked it up. She was 10th in shots (42), tied for 7th in points (20), tied for 3rd in goals (9) and tied for 3rd in game-winning goals (3).

And she didn't even make the third team? I don't know the players on the other team well enough to say who should have been bumped, but that's complete BS. Scovill had a great year and deserves to be recognized for it.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

100% agree. It's hard to argue Baum, Redman, Clarke, and Smith of course but Scovill definitely deserved a spot as well.

I also want to know what game these other coaches are watching to only have Courtney Smith on the third team. Yeah, her assists were "down" in conference season - but that's because every single team we played was scheming to try to take her crosses out of the game. Not to mention some of the teams actually defending her throws. Unbelievable.

Oh well - I had sensed some Big East bias in the weekly awards, but to be fair the all-conference teams are pretty legitimate in general.

[HeyHey]

Congrats to our Mallory, Rikki, Courtney and Shelby.

So Scovill can't get all-conference when she's third in goals and third in goals per game, yet the 4 forwards on the 3rd team aren't even on the top 10 list? Really? How does that happen?

Kenzie was totally robbed.

[Pony4Life]

First things first: congratulations to Baum, Redman, Clarke and Smith for getting honored after outstanding seasons.

Kenzie Scovill did get robbed. I'm not going to say she should have been on the first team, since there were others with a lot of goals, too, but to finish third in goals and lead the team in goals and not get on ANY team? That's a joke. At least we know how good she is.

I also agree with DanFFH about Courtney Smith. Most of the time, defensive honors go to goalies, because you can talk about shutouts and saves and penalty kicks and whatever else goes in to playing, just like a pitcher in baseball gets credit for having a great ERA when part of the credit has to go to slick-fielding players behind him. But you can't say her assists were "down," can you? She tied FOR THE CONFERENCE LEAD and it looked like teams intentionally ran their offense away from her side of the field. I don't know enough about playing defense to give a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo here, but she's an absolutely awesome player.

The first and third teams included four forwards, and there is no way there are 11 forwards better than Scovill, and I'm not sure there's one defender better than Smith.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I'm not sure there's one defender better than Smith.

I couldn't agree with this statement more.

Obviously, with Smith, a lot of focus is on the offensive side - but she plays fantastic defense as well and keeps getting better and better.

You also have to give her tons of credit for hardly missing a beat after the shoulder injury against CC.

[Hoofprint]

So is the Kenzie Scovill snub the reason she's the Photo of the Day?

Congratulations to the Ponies honored for their play this year.

[PonyPride]

So is the Kenzie Scovill snub the reason she's the Photo of the Day?

Ha .... no. Pure coincidence.

The Ponies play today in the C-USA tournament, so soccer seemed appropriate.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Realized this was never posted...

Courtney Smith and Kenzie Scovill were named first-team C-USA by College Sports Madness.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/5129

Mallory Baum and Shelby Redman were named to the second team.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

More national recognition for SMU, as the great Mallory Baum came in at No. 94 in topdrawersoccer.com's final National Top 100 rankings for 2012.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-national-top-100/women