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Women's Soccer Opens Season This Weekend at Home

       

Women's Soccer Opens Season This Weekend at Home

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The Coastal Carolina University women’s soccer team opens the 2004 regular season this weekend as the Lady Chants start a three-game homestand. Coastal hosts Wofford College Friday, August 27, at 4 p.m., in Conway in both teams’ season opener. Coastal then will face Atlantic Coast Conference foe North Carolina State University Sunday, August 29, at 1 p.m., at the CCU Soccer Field.

SCOUTING WOFFORD: The Terriers are coming off a 7-9-3 season in 2003, including a 5-4-2 record in the Southern Conference. Wofford returns eight starters and 16 letterwinners from last year’s squad, including senior Abby Anderson, who was second on the team in points with nine in 2003.

Coastal and Wofford have each won two games in their season series. Last season, Anderson scored in the 87th minute to defeat the Lady Chants 1-0.

SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA STATE: The Wolfpack have played two exhibitions prior to the start of the 2004 season, tying UNC Greensboro 1-1 and defeating Virginia Commenwealth 2-0. Aria Tanzi and Lydia McBath scored goals in the win over VCU. NC State is coming off a 9-9-1 season in 2004 and returns seven starters and 18 letterwinners to the pitch.

Coastal and North Carolina State have never met on the soccer field.

COASTAL IN OPENERS: The Lady Chants are 1-2-1 in opening games overall. Last season, Coastal fell to LSU 2-1 in the Tigers’ tournament. Bobbie Parsons (Portugal Cove, Newfoundland/Prince of Wales) tied the game in the 55th minute with an assist from Laura Weiler (Lexington, Ky./Lexington Catholic), but the Tigers scored with two minutes left to avoid overtime, sending the Lady Chants to defeat. Coastal defeated South Carolina State 7-0 in 2002 for its victory in an opener.

CCU PICKED AS BIG SOUTH FAVORITE: The Coastal Carolina women’s soccer team was picked as the favorite in the 2004 Big South Conference Pre-Season Poll, the conference office announced today (Aug. 17). The Lady Chants received 143 points overall, including five first-place votes. The 2003 squad, in Coastal’s fourth season of women’s soccer, went 10-9-2, earning the most single-season wins in program history. The Lady Chants also made their mark by tying for the regular season conference title for the first time.

Coastal was picked no lower than third in 17 of the 18 ballots eclipsed Liberty University, who had seven first-place votes, but only 129 total points. Coastal and Liberty tied for the Big South regular-season troplhy last season. Radford University was picked third with 122 points, including one first-place vote. The University of North Carolina at Asheville was selected fourth with one first-place vote and 107 total points. High Point University follows with two first-place votes and 91 points. Birmingham-Southern was selected sixth with 81 points. The poll was rounded out with Charleston Southern University (61 points, two first-place votes), Winthrop University (58) and Virginia Military Institute (28).

CHANTS BIG SOUTH CO-CHAMPS: Coastal Carolina captured the Big South regular season co-championship in 2003 when the Chants tied with Charleston Southern, 1-1. The Lady Chants won a share of its first-ever Big South regular season conference crown in only the program’s fourth year of existence. The team final mark of 4-2-1 in the league is its best conference finish in program history.

BIG SOUTH HONORS CHANTS: Coastal Carolina was well represented at the Big South postseason awards, handed out before the 2003 Big South Tournament. Head Coach Karrie Miller was named the Big South Coach of the Year for the second time after guiding the Lady Chants to a co-championship in the regular season, including a 4-2-1 conference record. Candice Doten was named the Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row and was on the Women’s Soccer All-Academic Team. Bobbie Parsons (Portugal Cove, Newfoundland/Prince of Wales), Doten and Marisa Kovacs were named to the All-Big South First Team while Simone Borucinski (Canberra, Australia/Daramalan College) was a Second Team selection.

PARSONS SETS SCORING RECORD IN 2003: Midfielder/forward Bobbie Parsons (Portugal Cove, Newfoundland/Prince of Wales) set new single-season records in three scoring categories in 2003. With her first goal against Birmingham-Southern Oct. 11, Parsons, one of three Coastal players on the All-Big South First Team, broke the single-season scoring record for Coastal with eight goals. She ended the season with 11 goals and her goals-per-game average was fifth in the Big South. She also broke the shot record this season with 86 shots and 46 shots on goal. Parsons broke the single-season points record with her 10th goal and 26th point of 2003. Parsons finished the season with 28 points, also fifth in the conference.

SOCCERBUZZ NAMED CHANT RECRUITING CLASS ONE OF SOUTHEAST’S BEST: The Coastal Carolina University 2004 women’s soccer recruiting class has been ranked 22nd in the Southeast Region by Soccerbuzz.com, the website announced recently.

The Coastal recruiting class includes midfielder/forward Kali Demmel (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Thunder Ridge), midfielder Jill Karelitz (Columbia, S.C./Dutch Fork), midfielder Emily McColl (Wellington, New Zealand/Hutt Valley), forward Morgan Tolan (Ocean City, Md./Stephen Decatur) and defender Missy Winstead (Myrtle Beach, S.C./Myrtle Beach).

This is the first time that the Lady Chants have had a recruiting class ranked by Soccerbuzz.com since the 2000 season, when they were grouped with Central Florida, East Carolina and UNC Wilmington as the Best of the Rest in the Southeast. Coastal also was the only team in the Big South that was ranked. The University of North Carolina topped the Southeast Region, while Texas A&M had the top class in the nation.

UP NEXT: Coastal wraps up its three-game homestand Tuesday, Aug. 31, against Western Carolina at 4 p.m., before playing in the Charleston Southern Tournament Sept. 3-4 against Maine and Campbell.