Women's Soccer Begins Friday
8/30/2007 12:53:37 PM | Women's Soccer
The 2007 women's soccer kicks off this weekend with a Friday game at Oakland at 2:30 p.m. and a Sunday game at Michigan State at 1 p.m. The season will be the 12th in school's history and fourth under the instruction of Patrick Farmer. Live stat to Sunday's game will be available through msuspartans.com and the game will be televised Monday at 8 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
The 2007 squad returns 10 starters and 20 letterwinners from a year ago. Among the returnees, nine have at least two years experience. The Orange will try to win its season-opener since defeating Fairleigh Dickinson, 1-0, in 2004.
Scouting Oakland.
The Grizzlies lost two starters and five letterwinners. Nine starters and 21 letterwinners will try and improve on the 8-11-1 record from 2006. Senior Kristi Tomczyk is the top returnee; she amassed a team-high 12 goals and 26 points. Junior Kim Herbst returns in goal after posting a 2.24 goals-against average and 96 saves in 19 games. The only other time these two teams met was in 2004 at a tournament hosted by Michigan. Oakland won 1-0.
Farmer's Keys to Success Against the Grizzlies
"For us getting a good start and scoring an early goal would be a big deal and add to our confidence," Farmer said. "I really think the first fifteen or twenty minutes will be a key to how the game goes. Then in the later half of the game, game management will be important because we have so many different people in different places this year."
Scouting Michigan State
The Spartans lost one starter and three letterwinners. They return 10 starters and 16 letterwinners to try to improve on an 8-9-1 record from 2006. Sophomore Lauren Hill is the top returning scorer. She scored a team-high eight goals and 18 points. Senior Nicole Galas started every game in goal last season posting a 1.26 goals-against average and made 85 saves. Syracuse has never played Michigan State.
Farmer's Keys to Success Against the Spartans
"If we step up and play harder, play faster than we did last year against teams from really good, physical conferences," Farmer said, "then I think it will be a great test for us as far as adapting our playing style. They have a tremendous quick forward, who we're going to want to keep the board early. And the deal for them is every game they scored first last year they won. Every game the other team scored first they lost. So I think how that pans out will have a lot to do with the result."
Syracuse Captions
Seniors Karrah Benson (Germantown, Md./Seneca Valley) and Jen Taormina (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) and along with junior Sarah VanSickle (Darnestown Md./Northwest) will be wearing the captain’s armbands.
Benson was one of four Orange to start all 19 games last season. He was a key to SU’s success on defense that registered six shutouts and held its opponents to one goal or less 10 times. She has started every game in her Orange career and scored one goal her freshman year. She earned ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-District I Second Team accolades.
Taormina played 18 games (starting 13) in the midfield in 2006. She has played in 49 career games and started 33. She has registered a career total two goals and five points. In 2005 she was one of four players to start all 20 games. She was named Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester and was a BIG EAST Academic All-Star in 2005 and 2006.
VanSickle has started all 37 games she has played. Last season she was second on the team with two goals and five points. A one time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week, VanSickle was named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester and was a BIG EAST ACADEMIC All-Star in 2005 and 2006.
Goalkeepers in Orange Record Book
Sophomore Bennett-Hattan is first on the school’s all-time single season goals-against average (0.94) and save percentage (.862). Her six shutouts from 2006 were the fourth most in school history and her 75 saves were fifth most.
Senior Candice Hofmann is first on the saves per game season list with an average of 7.60 and first on the saves per game career list with 7.43.
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