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Vanderbilt Women’s Soccer Travels To UAB Nike Classic 9/2/2004 Vanderbilt’s women’s soccer team will hit the road for the UAB Nike Classic in Birmingham, Ala. Vanderbilt will face the University of Minnesota on Friday at 5 p.m., and the University of Alabama-Birmingham on Sunday at 2 p.m. UAB is the host school and will play Central Florida on Friday and Vanderbilt on Sunday. This will be the first-ever meeting between the Golden Gophers and Vanderbilt. The Commodores played their first game of the regular season last Friday, August 27 at home versus a highly competitive Wake Forest team. They played to a 1-1 tie in double overtime. The keepers for both teams were key in this game with Vanderbilt taking 14 shots and Wake Forest taking 15 shots. The Commodores showed a major improvement from the 2003 season where they went 6-7-3. Head Coach Ronnie Coveleskie Hill has this to say about her team, “This is a much faster paced team. One that is ready to attack the ball rather than sitting back and let the action play out. This is exciting soccer.” Minnesota played their first regular season game versus Northern Iowa. They won the game in their coach’s debut, 1-0. Head Coach Mikki Denney Wright was hired at Minnesota on January 8, 2004. The Golden Gophers held Northern Iowa to only 9 shots against their 25. The team is bolstered by nine new players in 2004. This includes seven freshmen players as well as standout junior goalkeeper Molly Schneider. The Golden Gophers went 6-10-2 in 2003 but definitely look to improve this season. On facing Minnesota, Head Coach Ronnie Coveleskie Hill said, “We are always excited to play new opponents and Minnesota is no exception. They have a great new outlook on the season under their new coach Mikki Denney Wright. This will definitely be a challenge set forth for our team and one I hope we can step up to.” The Commodores will also face off against the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The team has an excellent record against UAB, going 7-0 in the history of the two schools meeting. UAB is coming off a loss to 23rd ranked Auburn. Says Head Coach Paul Harbin of his team, “We have got to do things right, and be physical and crisp and we just had some flat periods in the first half where we did not do those things.” UAB is currently 1-1 on the season defeating Jacksonville State on August 27th. “UAB definitely showed that they could compete with a top ranked team like an Auburn or a Georgia and that makes them a target for teams looking to improve. We will certainly look to step up our defensive game after seeing UAB put up six points in their win against Jacksonville State,” says Coveleskie Hill. “This weekend is a great test for our team. This trip will challenge us because we will play two games in three days for the first time this season. The real question to be answered will be — can we play against two quality opponents within a short period of time. In past seasons, this has been a weakness in our program — an inability to play back-to-back games and produce quality results. I am looking forward to this first opportunity for our team,” said Coveleskie Hill. |
