Women's Soccer Set For Home Opener
9/12/2002 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO - After playing their first three matches on the road, the DePaul women's soccer team starts the home portion of the schedule this weekend against the Drury Panthers and Idaho Vandals. The Blue Demons stand at 2-1 while Drury enters the weekend at 0-3-1 and Idaho stands at 2-1.
Looking at the Blue Demons
DePaul returns 13 players and welcomes 12 newcomers to the 2002 roster... of those 13 returners, three are seniors, five are juniors and there are five sophomores... in the season-opener at Northwestern seven of the 11 starters where not on the club last season... senior Christy Young needs just one goal and one point to move into a tie in each category on the DePaul career lists... six different players have scored at least once this season... Julianne Sitch leads the club with five points on a pair of goals and an assist... Young has two scores while Lindsay Deason, Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman, Margo Sackmaster and Krissy Seberhagen have one goal apiece... after opening the season with three straight road matches, the Blue Demons play four of the final six September matches at Wish Field... head coach John Wilson is in his third season in Lincoln Park.
Updating the Recordbook
In the 5-0 win on Sept. 1 at IPFW, the Blue Demons tallied their largest margin of victory in the program's seven-year history. The previous high was a 4-0 win on Oct. 27, 1999 against Loyola-Chicago. The five scores also set a single-game record for the women's soccer program.
Senior forward Christy Young inched her way closer to the top spot on the career leaders chart with two goals against the Mastodons. The Ft. Wayne, Ind., native is just a point shy of the career points leader and a goal shy in the career goals category. Jeannette Croce (1997-00) leads both categories with 35 points and 14 goals. Young, who holds the top spot with eight assists, has totaled 34 points and 13 goals.
Looking at the Weekend Opponents
Drury Panthers - Drury stands at 0-3-1 after dropping matches at Saint Louis (3-0), against UNLV (1-0) and Oklahoma (3-0)... in their last match, they tied Middle Tennessee State 1-1... a year ago, Drury was 7-11... head coach Christopher Baker is in his second season... located in Springfield, Mo. The series: Friday marks the second meeting between the Blue Demons and Panthers... DePaul won, 1-0, last season.
Idaho Vandals - Idaho is 2-1 and plays at Iowa on Friday before moving to Chicago for Sunday's match with DePaul... they posted back-to-back wins against Boise State (2-1) and Eastern Washington (1-0) before falling to Washington State (2-1) in their last match... Adriane Kehl leads the club with two goals... in 2001, they post a 9-8-3 record... head coach Arby Busey is in his first season as head coach... located in Moscow, Idaho. The series: Sunday will be the first meeting between the two programs.
Last Time Out - DePaul 3, Indiana State 2
The DePaul women's soccer team won their second straight game with a 3-2 decision over Indiana State last Friday. The Blue Demons fell behind twice, but Julianne Sitch scored the match's final goal in the 87th minute to seal the win. The victory improved DePaul's record to 2-1 on the young season.
Indiana State took the lead twice only to see the Blue Demons come back and tie the match. In the 22nd minute, Nichole Tiggs scored the game's first goal past keeper Lindsey Deason. DePaul's Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman answered the Sycamore score with her first goal of the season at 29:56. Freshman Erin Walter set up the score for her first career assist.
Five minutes into the second half, Indiana State's Claire Hemkens found the net past Erica Keppel to give the Sycamores the 2-1 advantage. Deason, the first-half goalkeeper, scored in the 59th minute to knot the game off an Erica Keppel assist. The match stayed at 2-2 until Sitch scored the game-winner.
With just over two minutes left in the match, Margo Sackmaster found Sitch who put the winner past Sycamore goalkeeper, Nicole Niman.
"I'm happy with the way we finished," said DePaul head coach John Wilson. "We need to work on playing 90 hard minutes. It was a hard fought game and I'm glad we were able to get the win."
For the match, DePaul outshot Indiana State, 18-10, while forcing Niman to make 13 saves. Nine different players for DePaul took at least one shot while Keppel finished the match with four saves.
Looking Ahead
The Blue Demons open Conference USA play on the road as they travel to South Florida and Southern Miss next weekend. DePaul returns to Wish Field for matches against Houston on Sept. 27 and Tulane on Sept. 29.