Aug. 20, 2007

Columiba, Mo. - After a little more than a week of practice, the University of Missouri women's soccer team is set to host Indiana for the Tigers' first game of the year, an exhibition contest against a Hoosier team also playing its first match of the fall.

Tuesday night's contest will start at 6:30, the new start time for all Tiger Friday night games this season.

Preseason Picks

Its too early to tell exactly how each team will stack up, but conferences and preseason polls do their best to give us an idea going into the exhibition games. The Big 12 coaches picked Mizzou to finish 8th out of 11 teams, which is higher than they finished last season (10th) but still below where the team hopes to be.

IU didn't fare much better in the Big Ten preseason poll, as the league's coaches picked them to finish sixth out of 11 teams. The Hoosiers finished fourth last year with a 5-4-1 record.

More Polls

The Tigers are ranked 13th in the preseason Soccer Buzz Central Region poll, one behind Friday's opponent Saint Louis. Indiana is not ranked in the Great Lakes Region.

Series History

The latest installment of the Hoosier-Tiger match-up is only an exhibition, but if the previous matches the two teams. Mizzou holds a 2-1 advantage all-time in regular season games, after a 2-0 win in the 2005 Big 12/Big Ten Challenge. Before that, Missouri lost a 2-1 in double-overtime to the Hoosiers in the Tiger Invitational in 2002. Mizzou last beat Indiana in 1999 after recording a 2-1 victory.

After IU

Mizzou will have another preseason game, Friday, Aug. 24, at Saint Louis, before their season opener at Illinois, Friday, Aug. 31.

Season Outlook

The 2007 Missouri women's soccer team returns seven of its top eight point scorers from last year's team. The 2006 Tiger squad got off to its best start ever, notcheing a top-10 ranking for the first time in school history.

While the 2006 season did not end the way Mizzou fans or players would have liked, the Tigers are coming into 2007 hungry and focused on winning..

One positive difference from the end of last season to the beginning of this one is the return of the Tigers' top scorer, junior Ashley Hamblin. Hamblin led the team in scoring, with 15 points on five goals and five assists last year, despite playing an injury-shortened nine-game season.

Hamblin returns along with a talented, athletic and experienced group of juniors. Janelle Cordia scored four goals and added an assist in 2006 while Mo Redmond, Lindsay McCoy and Kat Tarr all return with invaluable experience and confidence.

"Our junior class is where it all starts from. All six have started since they were freshmen," said Mizzou Head Coach Bryan Blitz. "Everything is a springboard from there. Everything starts from the junior class."

Last season's leading goal scorer, sophomore Kristin Andrighetto, who notched six goals in 2006, is back. Along with classmate Bree Thornton, who contributed five goals of her own as a freshman.

Blitz believes this Tiger team is most athletic ever at Missouri. With an athletic team, he will plan an aggressive style of play that puts three forwards in the lineup keeping Mizzou on the attack and the pressure on the opposing defense.

"It starts with our front line, that's why our depth is so important on our front line. To play the pressing style, you've got to have quality depth in the forwards, and we play three forwards and we ask them to do a lot of defensive work, because our defense starts with them."

"While the defense starts with the forwards, it ends with the defenders on the back line," Blitz believes.

The Tigers return three starting defenders. Sophomore Crystal Wagner, Tarr and McCoy, who have all started since their freshman seasons. The trio are all athletic, have the ability to solve a lot of different issues and work well as a team.

The Tiger defense recorded five straight shutouts to start the 2006 season and the three returning defenders played a big role in the school record-setting performance. Wagner made 15 starts as a freshman in 2006. Tarr started 14 games, and was a solid piece of the Tigers' defensive line. McCoy saw action in all 19 games, earning 18 starts. Besides the talented returners, Blitz also counts on the newcomers to fight for playing time.

Goalkeeper Mallory Forst is the Tigers' last line of defense, and her solid play in the net last season should bode well in 2007 as well. Forst started 17 games in 2006, and began the year by recording four shutouts. She saved 54 shots with a 1.50 goals against average and looks to again anchor the Tigers' defense.

Hungry for More Than a Great Start

Last season, Mizzou got off to its best start ever. A few key injuries coupled with a young team are lessons learned in 2006. Those hard lessons were the education needd to feed a successful 2007. Each returning player knows the importance of the conference schedule, and with the battle-hard of the Big 12, it is a slate no player can take lightly.

"I think the way we finished in the conference last year, made our team hungry, we'd never finished that way before...I think it motivated that group of players to say, hey, we're going to control what we can, we're not young players anymore," Blitz said.

Spring

Despite only having nine players during the spring, the Tigers still competed well. Earning valuable experience that will help them in the coming months. Mizzou defeated Indiana, SEMO, Drake and North Dakota State, and gained even more experience playing with each other.

Depth

"Depth is the benefit of this group, is that its so athletic, and so versatile, they can do anything to get on the field, and there's not a big drop off. That's what makes this group special going into the fall," said Coach Blitz.

The sophomore class adds comforting depth to the team, as forward/midfielders Bree Thornton, Michelle Collins and Meghan Pfeiffer and Andrighetto look to help the Tigers on the attack, while defender Wagner will help Mizzou stop the opponent.

"We have a lot of weapons. Not only that, but we've got a lot of firepower coming in, out of our eight newcomers. Three or four kids that will be pressing for time."

Those newcomers include two transfers, sophomores Tasha Dittamore and Emily Zaler, and seven freshmen, Kari Adam, Alysha Bonnick, Katya Hessel, Brittany Hopkins, Krista Kruse, Caitlin Linas and Kelsey Stokes.

Schedule

Coach Blitz's 2007 schedule does not shy away from competition. The Tigers will face nine teams that played in last year's NCAA tournament, and eight that finished in last year's final NSCAA/adidas National Top 25 poll.

The Tigers kick off the regular season with at Illinois on Aug. 31 before facing Western Michigan at home, Sept. 2.

The next weekend, the squad heads to Iowa City to play the Big Ten's Iowa Hawkeyes and returns home to face the Eastern Illinois Panthers.

The Tigers will then venture out west to play in the Stanford Invitational against two of the top programs in the country, Stanford (Sept 14) and Santa Clara (Sept 16). Santa Clara finished ninth and Stanford 16th in the final NSCAA/adidas National poll.

The Tigers return to Columbia for their first Friday night game of the season, Sept 21 when they host California at the new start time of 6:30. Sunday Sept 23 TCU comes to Mizzou to cap off what will be an exciting weekend of non-conference action for the Tigers and their fans.

Missouri begins Big 12 Conference action on Friday, Sept. 28 with a home contest against Texas A&M

On Oct. 12 and 14, Missouri hosts Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, respectively, in what should be an exciting weekend during the middle of conference season.

Mizzou closes out the home schedule with contests against Iowa State and Nebraska on Friday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 28, respectively, before concluding the 2007 regular season against Border Showdown rival Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., on Friday, Nov. 2.