With both University of Memphis soccer teams playing each weekend it can be difficult to keep up with all of the action. We’ve come up with a weekly notebook that will fill you in on all you need to know every Wednesday throughout the season.
Weekend in review
It was a slow weekend for Memphis’ soccer teams, as they combined for an 0-2-1 record that saw the men’s team’s rough start continue and the women receive their first draw of the season despite outplaying their opponent.
The men had a pair of difficult road games at No. 16 Saint Louis and at SIU-Edwardsville, who made the NCAA Tournament in 2014. In both contests, the Tigers were level with their opponent at halftime but were unable to keep up in the second half. The Tigers fell 3-0 to Saint Louis and 2-0 to SIU-Edwardsville as the team fell to 0-4 on the season and finished the weekend without a goal scored.
On the women’s side, the Tigers lit up the Dartmouth goal with 24 shot attempts. However, the majority of these shots missed the intended target and Memphis found itself trailing 1-0 until freshman Elizabeth Woerner equalized from 18 yards out in the 80th minute to send the game into extra time. Neither team was able to score in the two extra periods and the draw brought the Tigers’ record to 2-1-1.
Finishing problems
The men’s soccer team has faced a few problems in its 0-4 start, and none have been more prominent than the lack of goal scoring. The Tigers have scored only one goal in four games so far and currently face a 329-minute goal drought.
At first glance, the stats are a little puzzling because Memphis has actually outshot their opponents by a margin of 52-43 on the season, despite being outscored 9-1. The issue with the Tigers hasn’t been creating goal-scoring opportunities — it’s been with finishing them.
According to coach Richard Mulrooney, players have too often settled for low-percentage looks from distance rather than working the ball into the box for more dangerous opportunities.
“I’ve played a long time and I’ve obviously coached a while now, and I’ve never been part of a team that has gone through this a full season, and I don’t think this is the season that I’ll be proven wrong on that,” Mulrooney said. “But if we don’t start making better decisions on the ball it very well could lead to singular goals scored for us this year, and that’s obviously not gonna win you a lot of games and at this point it hasn’t won us any games.”
Junior Raul Gonzalez and sophomore Hector Cantele are two players that Mulrooney is hoping can break his team out of the goal-scoring slump. The duo were instrumental in putting the ball in the back of the net in the 2014 campaign with Cantele leading the team with seven goals and Gonzalez notching a team-high six assists in addition to three scores. So far in 2015, neither player has logged a goal or assist.
While the problems aren’t nearly as extreme as on the men’s side, the Lady Tigers have experienced some finishing troubles of their own despite a solid 2-1-1 record. The women have yet to break the multi-goal barrier this season, scoring exactly one goal in each of their four games.
The finishing issues showed in Sunday evening’s contest against Dartmouth when the Tigers overpowered their opponent with 24 shot attempts but were only able to come away with a 1-1 draw.
“It’s good that we’re creating the chances, but we’ve got to get a little bit better at finishing our opportunities,” head coach Brooks Monaghan said. “Part of that is because we’re young, and I don’t like to use youth as an excuse, but this is the next level for these girls and it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Freshmen shine for Tiger women
While it’s certainly true that it takes time for most freshmen to adjust to the college game, a couple of newcomers on the women’s team have already stepped in and made a major impact in the opening games of the season.
Elizabeth Woerner has been arguably the Tigers’ best player so far, scoring two goals and leading the team with 16 total shots and eight shots on goal. Freshman Marie Levasseur hasn’t yet added her name to the scoring sheet, but has made an impact on the attacking end and is second on the team in shot attempts.
“It’s critical to our success (that freshmen step up),” Monaghan said. “In a perfect world you don’t want to have to rely too heavily on first years, but we are who we are, and we’re a team this year that has a lot of youth on the field, so it’s critical that those young players step up.”
Of the 10 players that have started three or more games for the Tigers, four are freshmen and one is a sophomore, and nearly all of the team’s experience is on defensive end of the field.
Second half defense
Scoring goals has been far and away the largest issue the men’s team is facing, but next on the list is the squad’s second half defense. Even though the team has a winless 0-4 record on the season, the team has been tied and right in every single game at the halfway point. The defense has been shakier after the halftime break, however, and eight of the nine goals conceded by the Tigers have come in the final 45 minutes.
“The book’s open as to what we need to fix and we’re going to look at everything, whether it be fitness, whether it be guys starting to lose focus and more changes need to be made in the second half,” Mulrooney said. “I wish I had an answer to it and I would implement it, but we will figure it out sooner or later from practices. Obviously, the more experience we get from these games it becomes less and less that we give up the first goal rather than getting the first one.”
Up next
Both the men and women’s soccer teams will be in action this weekend, although each team will face two very different levels of competition.
The Lady Tigers will play two home games against two relatively weak teams in UT-Martin and Idaho. UT-Martin, who the Tigers will take on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Mike Rose Soccer Complex, holds a 1-4 record, and was recently demolished by a score of 7-0 by South Alabama.
The Skyhawks have conceded 18 goals in five games, and Friday’s contest will be an excellent opportunity for the Tigers to get the offense rolling and notch their first multi-goal game of the season. Following that game, the women’s team will face 2-3 Idaho Sunday afternoon.
The men on the other hand will play only one game this weekend – on the road Saturday at No. 15 Kentucky. The Wildcats are 2-0 in 2015 and will be the second nationally ranked team the Tigers have faced this season; the other being Saint Louis, who defeated Memphis 3-0.
Freshman Elizabeth Woerner leads the Lady Tigers with two goals in four games this season.
