The University of Memphis women’s soccer team has enjoyed success in recent years, but it is off to a rocky start to the 2014 campaign.
The squad currently holds a 1-2-2 record, going winless since starting out the season with a 2-1 road victory against the University of Alabama.
Head coach Brooks Monaghan isn’t happy with the start, but he acknowledges the quality of the opponents the team has played so far.
“We’ve obviously played a very tough schedule,” Monaghan said. “I’m disappointed and I think the team is too with where we’re at. We’ve made juvenile mistakes that these teams have capitalized on.”
Since the win at Alabama, the Tigers played a goalless draw against Lipscomb, and then picked up a pair of losses against Vanderbilt and Auburn before drawing at Ole Miss.
A primary issue facing Memphis thus far has been the offense. In five games this season, the Tigers have scored just four goals, with three of them coming from sophomore forward Valerie Sanderson.
According to Monaghan, his team needs to have more desperation in the attacking third to get past their offensive shortcomings and place more names onto the score sheet.
Despite just one win the first five games, Monaghan said he isn’t concerned with where his team is in the standings at the moment.
“In the big picture we’re fine,” the 14th-year coach said. “I think RPI has us (ranked) at 59 still. This schedule was set up for a reason. It was to test us. We’ve just got to get back on the winning side of things.”
The Tigers will have an opportunity to improve their record this weekend, when they host Southeastern Louisiana on Friday and then travel to Kennesaw State on Sunday. It won’t be easy, however, as Southeastern Louisiana enters the matchup with a perfect 6-0-0 record.
“I don’t know if (Southeastern Louisiana) has played a team of Memphis’ caliber, but they’re confident,” Monaghan said. “Kennesaw has been up and down a little bit. They just took South Florida to overtime this weekend. At the end of the day, we need to be at our best to give us the best chance to win.”
After the pair of contests this weekend, the Tigers have just two more non-conference matches remaining before conference play starts, so it will be a valuable opportunity for Memphis to get some issues corrected before the games begin to take on a little more meaning.
The U of M will kickoff against Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. Friday at Mike Rose Soccer Complex, and the road game against Kennesaw State will start at 4 p.m. Sunday.
