University of Memphis Athletics
2004 Women's Soccer Season Wrap Up
Dec 06, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Dec. 6, 2004
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Tigers Fall to UAB in C-USA Tournament Quarterfinals but Wrap up Best Winning Percentage Ever
An overall successful season ended for the Memphis women's soccer team with a 4-1 loss to eventual C-USA tournament champion UAB in the quarterfinals of the C-USA tournament. The Blazers would eventually go on to the NCAA Tournament a upset Wake Forest in the first round before bowing out to Tennessee in the second round.
The Tigers had the best start to a season in program history, winning four of their first five games and putting together a 7-2 record through the month of September. They also started their Conference USA schedule 4-1 and were in a tie for second place on October 10th. From there, however, Memphis lost four straight, included two by one goal and found themselves needing to win their final game of the year against Cincinnati to qualify for the C-USA tournament. In an exiting double overtime game, the Tigers topped the Bearcats 1-0 in double overtime as senior Monica Powell scored her first goal of the year as the game-winner of the first assist of the year from senior Leanne McGee. The win propelled the Tigers into the C-USA Tournament for the first time since 2002.
All of the success was possible despite the Tigers missed two of their top players from 2003. Yuiko Konno and Nicky McLeod, a pair of first-team all-C-USA selections from last year and expected to play large parts on the 2004 squad, both missed the season. Konno was not granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA after she had transferred to Memphis from a school in Japan last year, while McLeod redshirted while continuing to recover from knee surgery after tearing an ACL during last spring. McLeod will be a junior next year.
Despite the tough way that the season ended in St. Louis, Memphis tied a school record for wins in a season (11) and set a school record for winning percentage (.579). Four players (Leanne McGee, Melissa Savage, Carla Scanniello, and Natalie Haerens) were named to a C-USA all-conference team, tied for the most in school history and the most for a Tiger squad under head coach Brooks Monaghan. It was also the second straight year that Memphis had a first-team all-conference honoree as McGee was named a first teamer following McLeod and Konno last season. Savage and Scanniello were both named to the third team while Scanniello and Haerens were named to the all-freshman team. Scanniello was one of just two freshman named to both the all-freshman team and one of the three all-conference teams.
New C-USA to Feature More NCAA Teams: Conference USA featured just one team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament this year, as tournament champion UAB was the lone qualifier. However, with the conference taking a new look next year with six schools entering and eight leaving, next year's women's soccer conference will feature four teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2004. In addition to UAB, both Rice and SMU earned NCAA berths out of the WAC this year while UCF went to the NCAA's out of the Atlantic Sun. All three will join C-USA along with UTEP, Tulsa, and Marshall next year.
The Coach: Brooks Monaghan (Memphis, 1994) just completed his fifth year as head coach of the Lady Tigers. He holds a career record of 39-52-5 during his time with the Tigers. Prior to becoming the head coach, he served as the goalkeepers coach for the Lady Tigers from 1996-99. He has been a part of the Lady Tiger program for all but one year of its existence, that being the first year of the program in 1995. Under his guidance in his first year as goalkeepers coach, the team's gaa dropped by nearly an entire goal, from 2.74 to 1.77. Monaghan is the all-time leader in shutouts (24) and goals against average (1.40) for the Memphis men's soccer program, which he played for from 1992-94.
Tieless: Memphis was the only team in the tournament field that did not have a tie this year and were one of just three in the conference that ended the season without a single tie.
Tigers' 3 Conference POW's Most in School History: Senior Leanne McGee was named a C-USA co-Defensive Player of the Week after the last day of the regular season. With that award, it gave Memphis three conference Player of the Week awards during the 2004 season, which is the most weekly awards in any one season in school history. Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Haerens was also named Defensive Player of the Week twice and in back-to-back weeks in September. The previous high for most weekly awards in a season was two back in both 1995 and 1997.
Two Tigers Honored for Academics: Robyn Smart and Annika Moller were both named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District IV women's soccer team. Smart was named to the first team and has a 3.957 cumulative gpa while double majoring in political science and business while Moller, a second team honoree, has a 3.809 gpa while majoring in social work.
Win Record: Memphis tied the school record for wins in a season with 11, which was set back in 1997. The Tigers also set a school record for regular season wins, as Memphis won one of its 11 games in 1997 at the C-USA Tournament.
St. Louis Success: The year 1997 was the only other year that Memphis qualified for the tournament when it was held in St. Louis and that year was one of their most successful C-USA Tournaments. In 1997, the Tigers won their first match against DePaul to advance to the semifinals, where they dropped a game to Marquette.
Three First-time Wins: Memphis accomplished three things this year that had never been accomplished in school history. The Tigers beat three teams this year for the first time in school history. The Tigers beat Cincinnati, Houston and Charlotte for the first time ever. In the case of Cincinnati and Charlotte, it was probably their last chance in a while to beat them because both are leaving C-USA next year.
Spreading the Wealth: With Monica Powell having scoring her first goal of the year in the regular season finale, Memphis ended the year with 14 players that scored at least one goal on the year. There were 11 players with at least one assist after Leanne McGee recorded her first helper of the year on Powell's goal, and 16 players that had at least one point. Not including the two goalkeepers on the roster, only three players that saw action this year did not record at least a single point.
Tigers Crack Regional Rankings: For the first time in program history, Memphis was regionally ranked on September 28. The Tigers were ranked as high as #10 in the Soccer Buzz Central Region poll and ended the season as receiving votes in the regional poll.
Double W's: By finishing the year with an 11-8 overall record and a 5-5 mark in C-USA play, Memphis more than doubled its win total from last year both overall and in conference play. The Tigers won just five games overall and two in C-USA play last year.
First Goals: Eight different players scored their first career goals for the Tigers this year. Freshmen Vicki Greenwell, Candace Halvorson, Kelsey Irish, Carla Scanniello and Caroline Barrett, sophomores Beth Keating and Melissa Savage, and senior Susannah Dawells all scored their first-career goals this season. Sophomore Shoko Mikami scored her first career goal at Memphis and at the Division I level but led Division II in scoring last year while at Christian Brothers University.
Wins Over NCAA Teams: Memphis took care of business in its two games this year against opponents that qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year. They topped Ole Miss 1-0 back on August 31 and then topped last year's C-USA champion DePaul 2-1 on September 24. Memphis played just one team that qualified for this year's NCAA Tournament, that being UAB as the Tigers lost to the Blazers twice.
An Eye-Opener: The win over DePaul on September 24 marked only the second time in program history that the Tigers have won their conference opener. The only other time they did that was in 1996 when they defeated Tulane 2-0. Last year, they tied Louisville in their C-USA opener.
Successful September: The Tigers wrapped up the month of September with a 7-2 record, by far their best start ever in program history through the end of August and September. The program's previous best start through the end of September in terms of win total was in the 2000 campaign when they went 6-5 in August and September.
Memphis 2004 Record By Month
August: 2-0
September: 5-2
October: 4-5
November: 0-1
Winning Stretch Best Ever: Memphis put together two separate three-game winning streaks this year, which was their longest winning streak since 2002. Additionally, the Tigers won six of seven and eight of 10 games at one point this year, which was the best ever winning percentage in school history over a separate seven and 10 game stretch, respectively.
Iron Women: Only four players played in every game of the season for the Tigers, those being Carla Scanniello, Annika Moller, Robyn Smart, and Melissa Savage. Of those four, only Scanniello started every game.
Neutral Facility: In program history, Memphis has just a 2-4-1 record on neutral fields, but has played just one match on a neutral field since 1997, that coming in 2002.
Haerens Inches up in Record Book: Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Haerens has already put herself into the Memphis record books as only a freshman. She recorded six shutouts this year, which is already tied for second place in school history for a career. The record is 14. She broke the school record for shutouts in a single season. That record was previously five, held by Katarina Wicksell, who did it twice in 2001 and 2002. She also set a season record for goalkeeper wins with 10. She also broke the season goals against average mark by putting up a 1.18 gaa. The previous record was 1.38, set also by Wicksell in 2002.
Haerens Garners Awards: Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Haerens was awarded back-to-back C-USA Defensive Player of the Week awards earlier this year. It marked the first time in Memphis history that an individual player won a Player of the Week award twice in a single season and it equaled the amount of players (2) that had previously won a Defensive Player of the Week award in program history. It was also only the third time in program history that Memphis received more than one conference Player of the Week award in a single season. With Leanne McGee winning a co-Defensive Player of the Week honor, the Tigers set a school record for most POW awards in a single season.
Individual and Team Single Season Records Tied or Broken in 2004:
Individual Shutouts
1. Natalie Haerens 6 2004
2. Katarina Wicksell 5 2002, 2001
Team Shutouts
1. 1997 7
2004 7
Goals Against Average (Min. 1000 Minutes)
1. Natalie Haerens 1.18 2004
2. Katarina Wicksell 1.38 2002
Team Goals Against Average
1. 2004 1.19
2. 2003 1.60
Goalkeeper Wins
1. Natalie Haerens 10
Team Wins
1. 2004 11
1997 11
Winning Percentage
1. 2004 .579
2. 1997 .523
Mikami Debuts: It did not take long at all for sophomore transfer Shoko Mikami to get her name into the points column. Mikami, a transfer from Division II Christian Brothers University who led Division II nationally in points and goals per game last year, assisted on Melissa Savage's first career goal and game-winner against Houston on October 3. She then scored her first career Division 1 goal, which turned out to be the game-winner, against East Carolina on October 10. Mikami, who tore an ACL last spring, did not play in her first game this year until the Evansville game on September 26.
And the Shutouts Kept Coming: Over the first six weekends of the season, Memphis recorded at least one shutout in five of those weekends. They also recorded a midweek shutout. However, after the weekend of October 1-3, the Tigers went without a shutout until blanking Cincinnati on October 29 to qualify for the C-USA Tournament.
Twice the Fun: In back-to-back games against Charlotte and East Carolina on October 8 and 10, Memphis scored a combined nine goals. The nine goals scored in back-to-back games was the most for the Tigers since the beginning of the 1999 season, when they scored 11 goals in back-to-back wins over Rhodes and Toledo. They were the most scored in back-to-back games against Division 1 opponents since 1996 when they scored 11 against Stephen F. Austin and Evansville. However, they lost the game to Evansville that year, making this two-game stretch this year the most goals Memphis has ever scored in back-to-back wins against a pair of Division 1 opponents.
Foreign Presence: This year's team had a diverse ethnic makeup as nearly half (40 percent) of the team was made up of foreign players. The Tigers had six natives of England, one native of Sweden, one player from Japan, and one from Canada, in addition to the 15 players from the U.S. In addition to the foreign presence, the Tigers also had representatives from 12 different states on the team. Each of those 12 states had only one representative except for Tennessee, which had four natives on the Tigers.
Memphis Breaks Ole Miss Streak: The win over Ole Miss back on August 31 ended a streak. The Rebels had won 16 straight non-conference games at home and had not lost in their last 22 non-conference games at home, winning 21 and tying one. Their last lost at home prior to losing to Memphis was against San Diego State in 1999.
Drawing First Blood: The Lady Tigers were more successful last year when they scored first. Out of their 18 games, they scored first in eight of them, while their opponent drew first blood in nine of them. In the eight games in which they scored first, they went 4-2-2 but only went 1-8-0 when their opponent scored first.
This year, the Tigers scored first in 13 of their 19 games and are 11-2-0 in those games, and 0-6-0 when their opponent scores first.
Halftime Lead Bodes Well: The Tigers led at halftime in just four games last year but not surprisingly, they went 4-0-0 in those games. When trailing at the half, their record was an opposite 0-4-0. When tied at the half, they went just 1-6-3.
This year, the Tigers went 7-1 when leading at the half, 0-5 when trailing at the half, and 4-2 when tied at the half.
Recruits Ranked by Soccer Buzz: This year's freshman class was ranked the 23rd best recruiting class in the Central Region by Soccer Buzz. This is the second straight year that the Lady Tiger recruiting class has been ranked in the regional rankings by the online publication, as last season's freshman class was ranked 11th in the region and was also in the upper half of the national top 100 classes, coming in at 46. Memphis's freshman class is the second-highest rated class in Conference USA in the Central Region, coming in just behind Houston, which came in 22nd.
