Murray State University Athletics
Racers open pre-season practice
8/13/2004 5:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
The Racers (6-10-3, 3-5-0 OVC last season) are practicing at the Hamilton Street field in the mornings and the Mallory France Soccer Complex at Murray High School in the evenings.
"We're focusing on conditioning right now," said head coach Mike Minielli. "We're focusing on getting in shape. We're scrimmaging in the evenings, because we have so many new players, we need to figure out where to play everybody and figure out our strengths."
Murray State was picked seventh in this year's Ohio Valley Conference pre-season poll.
Samford (12-4-5, 7-1-0 OVC last season), which won the regular-season title last year, was picked first, garnering seven of the nine first-place votes and tallying 63 points. Eastern Illinois (11-6-5, 6-0-2 OVC), which won the OVC Championship Tournament last season, was picked second, taking the other two first-place votes and totaling 56 points.
Southeast Missouri State (10-5-5, 4-3-1 OVC) was picked third with 48 points, followed by Jacksonville State (11-5-4, 4-1-3 OVC) with 47 points, Tennessee-Martin (9-7-3, 4-2-2 OVC) with 36 points, Tennessee Tech (9-11-0, 3-5-0 OVC) with 27 points, Murray State with 24 points, Morehead State (2-13-1, 0-8-0 OVC) with 12 points and Austin Peay (5-13-1, 1-7-0 OVC) with 11 points.
Balloting was done by league coaches, who could not vote for their own team. Teams received eight points for a first-place vote, seven points for a second-place vote, etc.
Murray State opens its 2004 season on Aug. 27 at home against regional rival Western Kentucky.
