USF hosts Santa Clara and San Diego in WCC Women's Soccer Action This Weekend

Oct. 22, 2003

October 24th vs. Santa Clara @ 7:00 PM Negoesco Stadium

October 26th vs. San Diego @ 1:00 PM Negoesco Stadium

USF COMES HOME AFTER SPLITTING THE NORTHWEST ROAD TRIP: The Dons (5-10-0, 1-2-0 WCC) traveled north last weekend to do battle with Gonzaga (8-6, 0-2 WCC) and defending National Champion #5 Portland (13-2, 3-0 WCC). In the first game of the weekend, USF played Gonzaga Friday night, beating the Bulldogs 2-1. Junior midfielder Annika Schmidt scored a goal early off a direct kick at the 5:46 mark, but Gonzaga answered back to deadlock the score at 1-1. At the 34:24 mark, freshman forward Shuree Hyatt scored on a breakaway goal to give the Dons the game winner. The goal was Hyatt's team-leading sixth goal of the season, and it was a pretty one, floating into the left upper corner from the right wing. San Francisco fired 10 shots in the first half. Gonzaga held a 3-0 shot advantage in the second half and took seven corner kicks, but the Dons defense, keyed by an excellent effort from Hyatt and junior defender Laura Ott, denied the Bulldogs. Senior goalkeeper Jennifer Orantes (5-9) collected her fifth victory of the season, making four saves on six shots. It was the 17th career victory for Orantes. On Sunday, the Dons made the trip to Portland to take on the Pilots. San Francisco held Portland scoreless for the first 35 minutes, but the Pilots erupted for three goals in the final 10 minutes and cruised to a 8-0 victory in front of 2,522 fans at Merlo Field. USF battled, but could not capitalize against the Pilots. USF trailed 3-0 at the intermission and Portland tacked on four more in the second half to record their 10th consecutive victory. Freshman forward Chelsea Hunt had the best scoring chance for the Dons midway through the first half, but her header sailed wide of the bar in the then scoreless contest. Junior midfielders Stephanie Gray and Cami Hernandez each fired a shot apiece, as did freshman forward Kate Nelson.

DONS HOST SANTA CLARA AND SAN DIEGO THIS WEEKEND: The Dons return to action on Friday night, welcoming in the 2002 National Championship runners up, #8 Santa Clara (9-3-4, 3-0-0 WCC) for a 7:00 PM match at Negoesco Stadium. On Sunday, the Dons will host the University of San Diego (7-5-3, 1-2-0 WCC) at 1:00 PM. The Broncos are coming off a huge win Sunday, shutting out the #7th ranked Pepperdine Waves 5-0. Junior forward and pre-season All-American Leslie Osborne scored her first hat trick of her career to lead Santa Clara to the victory. Junior forward Bree Horvath and senior forward Tracy Hess also found the net for the Broncos in route to the win. Goaltender Julie Ryder notched her fifth shutout of the season, recording three saves. San Diego is also coming off a huge victory at home, knocking off #20 ranked Loyola Marymount 2-0. Senior forward Katie Allen and senior midfielder Colleen Fogarty each scored a goal for the Toreros. Goaltender Libby Bassett had three saves in route to the shutout win.

SCOUTING SANTA CLARA: Santa Clara comes into this match with the Dons having gone unbeaten its last seven matches. Their last defeat came at home against the #18 ranked USC Trojans on September 26th. During that stretch, the Broncos have outscored their opponents 19-3. In their three conference victories this season, they are outscoring their opponents 12-1. Offensively, Leslie Osborne leads the Broncos. On the season, Osborne has scored eight goals and has four assists, for a total of 20 points, good for third in the conference. Tracy Hess has scored six goals this season, fourth place in the conference. Senior forward Veronica Zepeda was a pre-season All-American, and has three goals and a team-leading six assists on the season. Junior Chardonnay Poole is a returning All-WCC honorable mention defender who has taken six shots this season. Goaltender Libby Bassett has an 8-1-1 record on the season. She is sporting a 0.59 goals against average, and has 27 saves this season. Overall, Santa Clara leads the series with the Dons, 19-0.

SCOUTING SAN DIEGO: The Toreros come into this match having lost three of their last four matches, but are still riding high after shutting out #20 Loyola Marymount last weekend. USD has had a tough time finding the net this season, with a conference-low 16 goals in 15 games this season. On the season, USD is being out shot 191-179 on the season. The leading goal scorer for the Toreros is sophomore forward Michelle Rowe. Rowe has five goals on the season, good for 10 points on the season. Senior midfielder Brenna Mullen has four goals and two assists, for 10 points, which ties her with Rowe for the team lead. Goaltender Libby Bassett has a record of 6-5-3 in goal for the Toreros, with 65 saves and a goals against average of 0.96. On defense, USD is led by All-WCC second-team defender senior Cristina Romero.

Annika Schmidt AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS IN MANY OFFENSIVE CATEGORIES: Annika Schmidt continues to be one of the more dominant players in the West Coast Conference. She is second in the conference with assists (8) and assists per game average (0.53) and sixth in shots (35) averaging 2.33 a game. Schmidt is also tied for seventh in points (14). Against Gonzaga (10/17) Schmidt had one goal, leading the Dons to an 2-1 victory. Schmidt was named co-West Coast Conference player of the week for the week of 8/25 -8/31.

THE DONS RANK HIGH IN CONFERENCE TEAM STATISTICS: The Dons are ranked high in many of the WCC statistical categories. The Dons are third in the league in shots (195) and are fourth in points (69), goals (25), and goals per game (1.92) behind only Santa Clara, Pepperdine, and Portland and are second in corner kicks (68) behind Santa Clara. The Dons are also fourth in assists (19) and assists per game average (1.46), behind only Santa Clara, Pepperdine, and Pepperdine. With 59 saves, the Dons are in second place in the conference behind Gonzaga.

DONS AMONG THE LEADERS IN INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS: Several Dons players are near the top of the leader board in key statistics. Freshman forward Shuree Hyatt is currently in fourth place in points (18) and third in goals (7). She is fourth in goals per game average (0.47), fifth in assists (4), and sixth points per game average (1.20) and shots (33). Freshman midfielder Chelsea Hunt is third in the conference in shots (46) and is fifth in the conference in goals (5). Senior goaltender Jen Orantes ranks fourth in the conference in saves (63).

SCHMIDT CLOSING IN ON THE ALL-TIME ASSISTS TOP FIVE: 12 games into her first season on the Hilltop, junior Annika Schmidt is already closing in on the top five in career assists. Presently, Schmidt has eight assists. The fifth spots all time are held by Kishandee Green (1995-98) and Jannik Abel (1994), each with 10 assists for their career.

Chelsea Hunt RECORDS THE FIRST USF HAT TRICK IN NINE SEASONS: Chelsea Hunt's hat trick on September 26th was the first for USF women's soccer since former Dons stand out Kelli Bryant performed the feat back on October 7th, 1994 in a 7-0 shut out of San Diego. Hunt began the game with two goals on the season and finished the game with five and in a fourth place tie for the league lead.

IF IT'S A WIN, IT MUST BE A SHUTOUT!: So far this season four of the Dons five wins have been shutouts. The all-time USF record for shutouts in a season is 10, which was done in 1994. That season the Dons went 12-6-1, the best season in USF Dons Women's Soccer history.

TEAM LEADERS IN KEY STATISTICS:
Goals - Shuree Hyatt (7)
Assists - Annika Schmidt (8)
Points - Shuree Hyatt (18)
Shots - Chelsea Hunt (46)
Saves - Jennifer Orantes (63)
Wins - Jennifer Orantes (5)

A LOOK AHEAD: The Dons will head down to Los Angeles on Sunday, November 2nd to take on Loyola Marymount. The Lions are sporting a 7-5-3 record this season and are 0-3-0 in WCC conference play. This weekend they are hosting Gonzaga (10/24) and Portland (10/26).