nortx9

REGIONAL TOP 15- Central Region As of 10/02 1 Texas A&M 8-3-1 2 Colorado 7-2-2 3 Saint Louis 6-1-2 4 Tennessee 5-3-3 5 Oklahoma State 9-2-1 6 Texas 8-3-1 7 SMU 9-2-1 8 Rice 9-1-1 9 Missouri 8-4 10 Denver 8-2-1 11 Vanderbilt 6-1-5 12 Nebraska 6-3-2 13 Mississippi 6-4-2 14 Kansas 7-4 15 North Texas 8-2-2 Apparently just because of who they may be is keeping us pushed down to #15....Missouri has lost back to back to lowly Baylor and TTech, neither of whom is ranked in Central region. Nebr got beat by Kansas (who is below them here) and is 1-2-1 in conf so far. Kansas started out at 18th, and has somehow leapfrogged UNT even after losing 4 games, last one to Creighton this week who is 6-5 and not ranked in a top 15. And, if Denver is 10, but was ranked second in preseason conf ranking to UNT, even if you make the argument that Grambling tie makes us now a second best in conf, we should still be at 11 if Denver is at 10. MTSU is 10-2, and only losses are to Vandy and Tenn, who are ranked in Central above all of the teams who have beaten those that are above us that have more than 2 losses, and they are not in top 15. Not real sure why Saint Louis is that high either, beat Illini but also lost to Duke so probably a wash there, they have played no one else of substance. Somehow, we should at least have made some climb instead of staying at 15 since beginning of polls. The old UNT hex I guess.....

Bad day was all. We had 30+ shots on goal I think , sank one... they had 3 or 5 and sank one. We had one called back for offside that was questionable. Hutyra missed half the game with an injury sustained in the game, and was in and out trying to get taped. Couple of others struggled through injuries in the game. Had played 5 games in 9days. And we shot poorly. All adds up to a bad performance. But, we have regrouped nicely and are starting to put together a very strong all-around game.

nuh-uh!

Hey, is that "the claw" or "the hook" she is giving the athletic dept?

Bet that is a Mean Green T she has on there under that Armani suit!

Again? did he say...watching it again? He IS the man fan! Guess it is a good reason to drink even more beer, watching it again..... hope the outcome is different! Is it one of those interactive replays where you can choose ending 1, 2 or 3? Can you choose "more blocking" or "more tackling' as a replay enhancement?

Well if we aren't working against ourselves from a scheduling perspective, like this weekend for instance, it has been fairly good. Hard to compete against VB and Pep Rally and Friday night in general, so this Friday was weak early, but got bigger as night went along. Think we had about 400 Friday and a good crowd for Sunday, about 350. I believe if we would promote in youth leagues and around campus just a little bit, we could get 500- 600 for a big game like MTSU.... Last three games will decide it....Friday 10/20 is W Ky at home, Sunday 10/22 is MTSU at home (we need a pep rally or a tailgate for this one!! who has the inside track on getting that to happen? ), and Denver on the road on Friday 10/27. Survive that gauntlet, and should be prepared for tournament and anything the NCAA's can give us in first round.

In my very humble opinion... 1. We are getting healthy, still a couple players that are still not at last years level physically, but getting better. 2. Defense and midfield are taking control of the game much earlier, creating better quality opportunities, resulting in higher percentage shot opportunities. Defensive line has been awesome last two games. We are winning more balls in the air too! 3. Hutyra is exploding now, she looks way more confident in last three games. 4. Getting scoring from multiple players, and we are finding those players with good quality passing. We are finishing better, and we are putting teams away early! The real plus there is that we are keeping the bench sharp by getting them extra minutes, while keeping the starters rested. We dismantled a very capable team yesterday in all areas of the game. I think that while our competition (Denver, MTSU) are putting up big scoring numbers against weaker conference teams, we still have the best team for playing both ends of the field. I think we will be a superior defensive team to MTSU, and Denver, and I believe our offensive experience and offensive struggles in non-conference games this year will give us the confidence to win and will be the difference against a strong defensive team like Denver. I still think our complete game is better than any strength advantage those two teams may have in certain areas of the game. We just cannot afford to create an unnecessary must-win situation by stumping our toe on the lesser teams leading up to these showdowns. We may in fact get some help along the way before we have to go head to head. We just need to be even up, or the one with advantage heading into those key games.......my two cents.

Great game today, lots of movement in the offense. FAU was moving some offensive players around to help with defending our attack. We need this very same effort every game from here on out, and we should get it. We have dominated midifield play of late, and we are getting the offensive weapons going, which has resulted in more balanced defensive sets so we are getting better looks at goal. I was not as impressed with FAU as the hype that preceeded their appearance here today. They are young team and will be better as they season, but they were flat overmatched today. Defense was very coordinated in the back today, not sure what the final tally was but late in game FAU had only had three shots on goal, and two were in first half. Think they ended up with only 5. The corner kick with seconds left in the first half was a killer putaway.

Don't forget to make it an all sports weekend...maybe one long three day tailgater! Soccer and VB Friday, Football Sat, and Soccer VB Sunday. One thing....who was the genius that set up the soccer and VB at same time slots on Friday and Sat? We would not want to do a back to back in the same complex, that would possibly cause large crowds and generate greater interest in the peripheral fan base for each sport. What an opportunity for the MGN to support all of the sports on a big sports weekend. Big Promo opp. Missed chance I say......

...and sports...

Was a good showing. I thought this was a good team, and scoring two goals against our defense indicates as much. ULM pressured defense all day, but our offense took over second half. Actually don't play La Laf until tomorrow afternoon. They gave Denver a run yesterday before losing 3-2.

UNT beat Monroe today 4-2. Juett had a hat trick in the win. UNT other goal was scored on an own goal by ULM. Team played well, came away injury free, so was a good day.

Good catch, thanks

2006 Preseason Sun Belt Poll As voted on by the league’s head coaches. First place votes in parentheses. School Points 1. North Texas (8) 139 2. Denver (2) 121 3. Florida Atlantic (2) 119 4. Middle Tennessee 118 5. South Alabama 90 6. Western Kentucky 84 7. Florida International 67 8. Louisiana-Lafayette 60 9. Arkansas State 43 10. Louisiana-Monroe 41 11. Troy 27 11. UALR 27

ATTENDANCE Team | HOME -GAMES -Avg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arkansas State | 2-168 84 Arkansas-Little Rock | 1-186 186 Denver | 0-0 0 | 3-2269 756 (road) Fla. International | 3-568 189 Florida Atlantic | 6-1477 246 Louisiana-Lafayette | 1-311 311 Louisiana-Monroe | 5-410 82 Middle Tennessee | 5-2887 577 North Texas | 4-1491 373 South Alabama | 5-786 157 Troy | 3-514 171 Western Kentucky | 3-644 215 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals | 38-9442 248 We have the distinction of leading the conference in attendance avg so far, but 373 is still not our best effort, we need more attendance!! Check out Denver's road average, don't care who you play, that's pretty good right there! Monroe is really bringing them in, at least the crowd should have limited effect on Friday day game.

Sun Belt Conference play begins September 22, 2006 marking the day the “new” season starts as all 12 Sun Belt soccer teams square off this weekend. Middle Tennessee (6-2) takes on Conference new-comer Florida Atlantic (3-3-2) who is coming off an impressive showing in a 2-1 loss to the No. 1 ranked Florida State Seminoles. Middle Tennessee currently is ranked No. 2 in the country in scoring offense having scored 30 goals in eight games this season. Louisiana-Lafayette (3-3-2) plays host to the Denver Pioneers (4-2-1) who have only allowed three goals on the season so far. The Rajun Cajuns have scored 12 goals in eight games as compared to only 15 goals all season a year ago. North Texas (4-2-2) visits the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (4-4-1) who have been perfect over their last four games at home. This match will also mark the first Sun Belt Conference game for ULM who played in the Southland Conference last season. In other action to take place on Friday, Florida International (2-4-0) hosts Western Kentucky (4-3-0), Troy (1-5-1) takes on Arkansas State (0-7-1) and UALR (2-5) heads to South Alabama (2-6).

Glad to enlighten, sometimes I get a little too into it as you can tell from the short stories I publish. Just passionate about the college sport and follow it closely from the club level to the collegiate level. Wishing the men's program could be resurrected. I happen to think that the men would have the same level of regional recruiting success as the women do, but would have to play an at-large schedule or something to get enough schools in our classification to make a season. No shortage of good coaches in this area to lead a program either. Wishful thinking??

Regarding this weekend's opening... Taking a closer look at LA Monroe and Lafayette stats ...through 9/15, these two teams are a nightmare in the waiting. Monroe is leading the conf in shots per game offensively, 2nd in total points and total goals, 1st in corners taken, in top 4 for least goals allowed and goals against avg, and 2nd in saves (probably first after this weekend's two games with 14 saves each). Gonna get pressure at both ends of the field..... Lafayette is going to be brutal, they lead the conference in fouls and yellow cards, and 2nd in shutouts, but 10th in goals allowed (hmmm....guess that means if they are in the game, they are tough on the scoreboard, and if they are getting blown out they hack away?). Granted these teams have not seen much top competition, but a team extended and expended against what looks like a very active Monroe team on Friday, that has to take on a very physical Lafayette team on Sunday better hope that this last stretch of 5 games in 9 days will pay off physically better than it did against Grambling..... These two will be harder than they look is my bet!

It is a bit troubling. I'm not sure it is a big problem just yet, but to your point, there is no good reason that this should have happened and maybe will be a wakeup call. This team has had a lot of nagging injuries for part of the reason and some are not yet back on top form. Hutyra missed early preseason, Campbell and Hurst missed some time early season with bad thigh, Weller blew out knee again this year and is finished for year, Cleveland hurt thigh vs. Nebr and played for first time yesterday and still had pain. Hutyra and Waters took leg/foot injuries yesterday, unknown status but Waters did not return to game, and Hutyra came off several times to get taped. Adams bruised her back too, and really did not return. Juett played with a bad calf at Nebr and USC games. Several games have been a series of these type things that carry over to following games, and chemistry has suffered too.....but, we are still putting up big shot numbers and are struggling to score, sometimes just plain sloppy. You are right about the competition talent getting better. Yesterday FL Atl nearly beat FL State who is ranked #1, M. Tenn state lost in OT to Vandy and only other loss is to Tennessee, both are ranked in Region or Natl. Denver lost to Colorado 1-0 this weekend (Denver is also struggling to score so far, but a couple of big wins too). See how they are all playing these ranked teams down to the wire? Their defense will be good, and we will need to finish those chances we get. W. Kentucky is no slouch at all, couple of good recruting years paying off. La Monroe keeper has posted back to back 15 save games, so punching the ball into goal next Friday will not be easy. USA has started slow, but may be as good as they were late last year by conference time or could play spoiler. There should be 4-5 solid competitors in conference this year instead of usual three, but if we cough up another Grambling or two along the way, we will probably be done as far a conference champs goes. Get a bad seed in the tourney and turn in the gear until next year! Gonna take a near perfect run vs. the middle to lower conference teams to be in a position to get the Cup! I do think this will work out, we are still explosive, but we must reflect that on the scoreboard. This weekend is real important to play well. We have a chance to get three conference games under the belt before taking on Fl Atl next weekend at home, so we might get some help early in competitor's conference games if we can take care of business early.

True. Good point, I stand corrected...... not similar to Moss, worse. Don't think it would flood though when it sprinkles like Moss does.

They have built a brand new basketball/Vball field house, and Fball stadium looks relatively new, but it was my first visit. The soccer field was crammed between a wooded field, a backwoods neighborhood, and the softball complex. My perspective was the field looked short in overall length too. Soccer and Softball fields were in stark contrast to the new field house, so maybe there are plans to develop. The Softball fence was old school plank wood, got to be brutal on any challenges into the wall, and planks were popping out all over. Funny thing.... there were old I-20 directional signs on some of the parking areas and dead end paved roads on the athletic complex, like they expanded over old roads and never removed the old signage. One sign pointed a left turn to I-20- straight into a parking area, and an elementary school is among college campus buildings........Weird.

GRAMBLING, La. (9/17/06) –The North Texas women's soccer team, playing in its fifth game in nine days, tied Grambling State 1-1 from the Grambling Soccer Complex. Side note: I think Grambling Soccer Complex is terribly generous...it is a field, with no seating, looked like a typical club soccer field (for those of you familiar with Moss park in Dallas?). Local spectators sat on cars driven to field level, or unused player benches, or in the softball dugout, or on the ground. Only PA system was a sweet mega-watt car stereo system in a truck pulled down to field level, blaring hot rap tunes for pregame. No scoreboard or clock. Concessions served on a mobile golf cart.....Good news is there was no way to collect gate fee even if desired, so was free admission. Parking lot was a 1/4 mile hike. Made the old Peterbuilt soccer game field look like a soccer mecca. Can't wait to make that trip again......

Looking at the official stats, in last two games we have taken 71 shots on goal, and only three goals scored. Good news is that we got 71 chances, bad news is that is 4% success ratio. Both games rank in the top 10 for UNT shots taken in a game. They were back to back games in the top 10. This does not even address the wasted chances that are not recorded as shots, which have also been numerous- lost possessions, bad passes, etc. What I think it says is that we are a dynamic offensive force, but we are not being patient enough with the offense. Maybe we are pressing to shoot prematurely when other options are available in the offensive structure. Defense was superb again keeping the game in control.

What should have been an easy win was turned into a nightmare tie....barely. Team is desperately looking for scoring, completely out of sync offensively. Could not buy a goal. To Grambling's credit, they deserved a win for their effort. Had it not been for a late goal by Juett to tie the score, it would have been. Poor shot selection, no shot selection, no accurate passing, and for the most part could argue we got out hustled, certainly on the offensive end and midfield. Hope it gets worked out this week in practice, cause today's effort next weekend and we will be 0-2 in conference before we get out of the gate..... this out of sync stuff has been going on for a while, even in the wins this week, we struggled with finishing chances in those games too. Time to get this fixed.