Memphis Hits the Road in Need of Points

Friday, October 23

Cincinnati, Ohio

6:00 PM CT

University of Memphis

Cincinnati

Photo by: Jason Roberts

Oct 22, 2015 | Women's Soccer

The Tigers are winless in their last four matches

WHAT: Match 17
WHO: Memphis at Cincinnati
WHEN: 6 p.m. CT, Oct. 23, 2015
WATCH: Bearcats TV
STATS: GameTracker
TWITTER: @MemphisWSoccer

WHAT: Match 18
WHO: Memphis at East Carolina
WHEN: 12 p.m. CT, Oct. 25, 2015
WATCH: Pirates On Demand
STATS: GameTracker
TWITTER: @MemphisWSoccer

Two matches remain in the American Athletic Conference regular season and Memphis is in need of points to better position itself in the standings heading into next month's league tournament. The Tigers (7-6-3, 2-3-2 AAC) will first travel to face Cincinnati (10-4-4, 4-2-1 AAC) Friday at 6:00 p.m. before closing the regular season against East Carolina (7-8-2, 2-4-1 AAC) Sunday at 12:00 p.m.

Without a win in the last four matches, the Tigers are currently sixth in the American with eight points but three teams sit just one point behind them in the standings. Adding to the difficult task that Memphis faces this weekend is the fact that the Tigers have only won once on the road this year and have a 1-3-2 record away from Mike Rose Soccer Complex.

"There's a ton riding on this weekend," Memphis head coach Brooks Monaghan said. "Obviously you can only control what you can control. We've just got to play some of the best soccer we've played all year and take care of ourselves. There are a lot of teams on the bubble to get into the conference tournament. This team has proven that it can play with anybody, but we have to find a way to get that 'W'."

The top two teams in the conference, USF and UConn, are separated by just one point, while UCF stands in third place. Cincinnati is five points ahead of Memphis in fourth place and Tulsa is sixth with two points more than the Tigers. SMU, Temple and East Carolina are all one point back of Memphis.

Eight teams make the conference tournament, which will be played November 3-8 at SMU's Wescott Field in Dallas, Texas. The winner of the championship game earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers will be hoping that junior forward Valerie Sanderson can put a few more goals in the net this weekend. Sanderson has just six goals through 16 games this season after scoring 17 as a freshman and 13 as a sophomore.

Freshmen Marie Levasseur and Elizabeth Woerner are the other main goal threats for Memphis with nine goals between them. Levasseur is second on the team in points, with three assists to go with her five goals.

Junior goalkeeper Maryse Bard-Martel and her experienced back line will also hope to get back to their best. The Tigers have already allowed more goals through the first 16 games than all of last season.

If Memphis can get back to winning ways, and depending on how the other matches play out this weekend, the Tigers could still finish as high as fourth in the conference standings.