No. 21 Tigers Resume AAC Play at Tulsa, home against Cincinnati

Thursday, October 7

Tulsa, Okla.

7 p.m.

University of Memphis

Tulsa

Photo by: Matthew A. Smith

No. 21 Tigers Resume AAC Play at Tulsa, home against Cincinnati

Oct 06, 2021 | Women's Soccer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – With last week serving as the team's bye week in American Athletic Conference play, the Tigers will hit the pitch again when they travel to Tulsa on Thursday night and welcome Cincinnati to town on Sunday afternoon.

Memphis (8-1-1, 2-0-0 AAC) is one of just two teams to remain unbeaten in conference play through the first three weeks; the Tigers followed their 4-0 shutout over Temple up with a 2-1 win over UCF on their home turf. Both Mackenzie Bray and Momo Nakao recorded their first goals of the season while being named to the AAC Honor Roll and Rookie of the Week, respectively. They also found themselves ranked No. 21 in the United Soccer Coaches National Poll and No. 18 in the Top Drawer Soccer Rankings this week.

"It's been a very productive break," said Brooks Monaghan. "We got to take a little bit of time off to get a girl's bodies time to rest which it critical at this point in the season; we got to work on some things that we don't normally have the time to do when playing two games a week while also having a little bit of fun with it."

Coming into this weekend's contests, 13 different Tiger players have recorded a goal this season with seven of them scoring multiple times this year. Senior Tanya Boychuk leads the charge with four goals and an assist while Jocelyn Alonzo, Saorla Miller and Aubrey Mister have all recorded three goals and one assist.

The Golden Hurricane (6-5-1, 1-2-0 AAC) is coming off a 4-1 win over the Owls of Temple last week. Tulsa would get goals from Kayla Fernandez (14'), Megan Nielsen (22', 24') and Mia Darden (55') while goalkeeper Raegan Beeding recorded four saves to cruise to the win.

For the season, ten different players have recorded goals for the Golden Hurricane while Isold Runarsdottir leads the team with six goals on 14 shots. Beeding and Emma Malsy have split time in goal for Tulsa with them combining for 58 saves through the teams 11 matches.

"The team is antsy to get back to soccer and this first match back is going to be a challenge," said Monaghan. "Tulsa took South Florida to double overtime and is now coming off a road win – which is never easy in the AAC."

Cincinnati (6-4-2, 1-1-1 AAC) is coming off a 1-1 draw with East Carolina that saw Kendall Battle score the tying goal for the Bearcats in the 53' off a loose ball in the midfield. Cincinnati had multiple chances to take the win, including back-to-back shots from Battle and Grace Wolber in the second overtime.

Coming into Sunday's match-up with Memphis, the Bearcats have outscored their opponents 19-15 with Vanessa DiNardo leading the charge with five goals and an assist.

"Having to turn around and play Cincinnati at home is going to be tough. They knocked us out of the conference tournament last season and are always competitive, so Sunday is going to be battle," said Monaghan.

Both matches can be live streamed on ESPN+ (Tulsa, Cincinnati) with stats being available on MemphisStats.com.

How to follow the Tigers: For complete information on Memphis Tigers Soccer, visit www.GoTigersGo.com and follow the team's social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.