W-Soccer: SMU vs. Temple (American Tournament)

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Well, women's soccer is the first sport to start each year and they are the first to start the postseason.

SMU (8-8-1, 3-5-1) faces Temple (6-11-1, 1-8-0) in the first round of the American tournament Friday night at 6pm Texas time. The game will be played in Orlando at UCF's stadium.

SMU has been playing so well lately and everybody is hoping for a deep run in the conference tournament, but one game at a time obviously.

The Mustangs defeated the Owls 1-0 in Philadelphia back on September 29 on a 53rd minute Kelsey Gorney goal from Courtney Smith and a clean sheet from Lauryn Bodden.

SMU preview:

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/103013aab.html

GO MUSTANGS!!!!!!!!!!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Action underway in Orlando!

Bodden; Smith, Jackson, Elliott, Bartol; Robinson, Clarke, Barg, Petrucelli; Redman, Gorney

SMU in white shirts, red shorts, and white socks. Temple in black shirts, black shorts, and cherry socks.

Go Mustangs!

[soccermom]

Good luck, Mustangs!!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU breaks the ice in the 22nd minute!

Courtney Smith with a lethal nutmeg centers a wicked low cross and it looked like it was deflected in by Kelsey Gorney.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Just like that Rikki Clarke makes it 2-0 SMU by absolutely drilling home a loose ball in the box! Check the air in that one.

21:20 left in the first half.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

2-0 SMU at the half.

The Mustangs were absolutely dominant for the first half hour or so. SMU was also able to get a ton of key bench minutes in with the early lead as well.

No stats, but I don't think Temple had more than one or two shots and I don't think any were on goal.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Memphis is up 1-0 at the half on Houston in the other first round game tonight.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The second half is underway!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

30 minutes left. Still 2-0. SMU has had some incredible chances to make it three...

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Oh dear Memphis is up 6-0 on Houston now.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

So close! Shelby Redman nails the crossbar and no SMU player is able to get to the rebound.

Still 2-0 with 22 minutes remaining.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Taylor Barg makes it 3-0!!! She whiffs on the initial shot after a beautiful through ball from Rikki Clarke, but is then able to poke in the loose ball off a defender on the line.

17:04 left.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

SMU defeats Temple 3-0!!!

An excellent performance by the Mustangs tonight.

SMU will face UCF in the quarterfinals Sunday in Orlando at noon Dallas time.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Memphis defeated Houston 6-0, so Sunday's American quarterfinals are set:

SMU at UCF (noon)
Memphis at Louisville (3:30pm)
Cincinnati at Rutgers (noon)
USF at UConn (noon)

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

It will be interesting to see the stats on this one. The game was never in question. I figured if we played tonight the way we have been playing the past couple of weeks we would handle Temple easily and that was certainly the case.

There was a period of 2-3 minutes in the middle of the second where Temple put some pressure on us, but they didn't really generate any good scoring opportunities and the majority of the rest of the match was totally in control by the Mustangs.

Temple's only decent chance the entire game came when they hit the post from around 25 yards after a, well, dreadful SMU turnover to a wide open Temple player.

Still a great night all around, especially with SMU having the opportunity to play everybody and get the starters a lot of rest with another game in less than 48 hours.

Go Mustangs!!!!!!!!!!!