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Commodores Reign First in Central Region; Griffin Honored Again 10/4/2005 Nashville — The Vanderbilt women’s soccer team moved up one spot in the Soccer Buzz Magazine national and regional rankings after two 1-0 victories in SEC road games this week. The No. 18 Commodores are the highest-ranked Southeastern Conference team in that poll, and for the first time since 1998 they are the No. 1 team in the Central Region. The No. 18 ranking is the highest since 1999. The Commodores (11-1, 4-0 SEC) are also receiving votes in the SoccerTimes Top 25 poll for the third straight week. The team actually lost three votes this week but is tied with three other schools with five votes, which would unofficially rank the team No. 31. The team is ranked No. 21 in the Top Drawer Soccer National Top 40. Top Drawer also recognized junior goalkeeper Tyler Griffin (Charlotte, N.C.) for the second time this season on its National Team of the Week. Griffin posted her eighth shutout of the season on Sunday, the team’s tenth. It was her 11th career shutout, tying her for second all-time in VU history. She also tallied her 106th career save, moving her to sixth on the Vanderbilt list, two behind No. 5 Stacee Sproul. Griffin and teammate Sarah Dennis (Germantown, Tenn.) were named the SEC Defensive and Offensive Players of the Week, respectively, this past week. It was the first time that teammates have earned SEC Player of the Week honors during the same week. Griffin is having one of the best seasons by a goalkeeper not only in Vanderbilt history, but SEC and NCAA as well. She has allowed only three goals in 12 games, while playing 1,028.5 minutes. Her Goals Against Average is 0.263. To put that number in perspective, the Vanderbilt record for a season is 0.88. The SEC record is 0.50 and while the NCAA record is 0.052, if the season ended today Griffin would be in eighth place on the single-season list. The Commodores are entering the toughest portion of their schedule with a road trip to South Carolina (5-6-0, 1-3 SEC) on Friday and Florida (7-3-1, 2-1-1 SEC) on Sunday. Florida is ranked No. 25 in the Soccer Buzz poll, but is ranked as high as No. 14 by Soccer America. After the road game, VU will continue with home games against SEC East opponents when it hosts Tennessee (6-4-1, 4-0 SEC) and Georgia (8-3-1, 2-2 SEC). UT is ranked No. 23 nationally and No. 3 regionally in the Soccer Buzz poll, but the Lady Vols are also as high as No. 14 in the NSCAA national poll. The NSCAA poll also has the Lady Vols No. 1 in the Central Region and Vanderbilt is tied at No. 8 for the second straight week. BREAK THE ATTENDANCE NIGHT When Tennessee does come to town for the Commodores next home game during Homecoming Weekend, it will be “Break the Attendance Night”. The first 150 fans will receive T- shirts and 500 gold shakers will be passed out. The game begins at 7 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex. |
