Game #1
ART U (0-0) @ Bethany University (0-0)
September 4th at 11:00 am
Soquel, CA – Soquel High School (401 Old San Jose Rd.)
Game #2
ART U (0-0) @ Menlo College (0-1)
September 9th at 2:00 pm
Atherton, CA – Wunderlich Field
The start of a new season: The Urban Knights are geared up and ready for a full 2010 schedule. The women played three scrimmages against local teams seeing growth and improvement in each game. Now that the official season is about to get underway, the women are more ready than ever to step out on the field.
Knights to watch: After the pre-season polls came out for the PacWest, the Knights were picked to finish eighth in the conference. Despite the low ranking, the women are determined to show everyone what they are made of. They have most of their team returning from last season, but have added more faces to the roster this year. Leading scorers, sophomore Carmela Doerr and junior Olivia Dupon, will both be looked upon to help lead the team again this season. Doerr finished in 2009 with a team high of four goals, and one assist for a total of nine points, and Dupon finished with three goals, and one assist, for seven points.
Scouting Bethany University: The Urban Knights open their season with a match up against Bethany University. This will be the first official game of 2010 for the Bruins. The Bruins struggled last year as they went 1-13 overall, but finished ranked third in the division in saves per game. They added several new faces to the team during the off-season, and have a young team consisting of four freshmen, two sophomores, and five juniors. They will be led by their lone senior Amanda Anderson, who played in all 13 games for the Bruins last year and posted one goal and one assist. Bethany’s leading goal keeper Breann Anderson also returns to action this year as a sophomore. In 2009, she posted 126 saves and had a .737 save percentage.
Scouting Menlo College: The Menlo Oaks are strong competitors in the NAIA Cal Pac Conference. They finished the 2009 season with an 8-9-1 overall record, and were third in the conference with a 6-3-1 record. This year’s Oaks team consists of two seniors, seven juniors, three sophomores, and seven freshmen. They will be led by Junior Amanda Torres. Torres played in all 18 games for the Oaks last season and recorded a team high seven goals, and three assists for a total of 17 points. They are looking to be led in the net by goalie Natalie Schader who recorded one win, and had .833 save percentage in 2009. Menlo dropped their season opener to Cal State Monterey Bay with a score of 0-2 on September 2nd.
Following your Knights: Junior defender Morgan McKnight has a student blog that keeps fans up to date on the current team. Find out what the ladies have been up to all week, and learn about their experiences while being an Urban Knight. You can find her blog on the Urban Knights website by either clicking the “student blog” button on the right hand side, or by going to the Women’s Soccer home page and clicking the “Kicking it with Morgan McKnight” icon, also on the right hand side.
Looking Ahead: After the two game road trip, the women return home to host their first homestand of the 2010 season. The home opener takes place on September 16th against Dixie State at Boxer Stadium. They will follow by playing Grand Canyon on the 18th, and University of Hawaii Hilo on the 22nd. Game time for the Dixie State game is set for 3:00 pm.