Murray State
Troy
Racers Return To Cutchin Field For 2011 Home Opener
8/24/2011 4:51:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Thursday
Murray State (0-2) vs. Troy (1-0)
1 p.m., Cutchin Field
Live Stats
Saturday
Murray State vs. Bellarmine (0-0)
3 p.m., Cutchin Field
Live Stats
Murray State soccer hits the grass at Cutchin Field for the first time in the 2011 regular season as the Racers host Troy and Bellarmine in a pair of non-conference contests.
MSU dropped its first two games of the season last weekend in a 3-0 defeat to Ball State and a 2-1 loss against Western Carolina at the WKU Tournament in Bowling Green, Ky.
“Having such a young team, we're dealing with the challenges of that now,” head coach Beth Acreman said. “We're seeing elementary mistakes happening that werare costing us goals, but team definitely came out and responded well with the energy and intensity that we were looking for.
The Racers meet a pair of strong teams this week, beginning with Troy Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Trojans, coming off an 11-8-1 campaign, won their first game of the year in a 5-0 victory over Alabama State. Alissa Jones was one of four players to score for Troy, finding the back of the net twice to lead them in scoring. The Racers lead the all-time series 1-0 between the two teams, earning a 2-1 win back in 2001.
“I know that Troy is a good soccer team, that they're going to come out and give us a good game,” Acreman said. “They've got some really good players that will cause us some trouble.”
Bellarmine comes into Saturday's 3 p.m. kick off having finished last season with a record of 11-5-2 and fifth place finish in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Knights return five goal scorer Reyna Naranjo and GLVC Defensive Player of the Year Abby Schuhmann. This season's match is the second meeting between the two teams, having played to a 0-0 draw in the season opener for Murray State last season.
“Bellarmine is a very organized, very sound, disciplined team that is very well coached,” said Acreman. “For us its going to be can we come back on Saturday and put in a good performance.
“We need for the intensity to stay as high as possible playing on our home field for two games. I feel like the team is learning every single game, be it if it's a hard learning lesson like last game, getting scored on in the last minute, but we need to move on from game to game and keep growing as a team as we move towards conference.”
The Racers travel to the Sunshine State next week, playing a pair of matches at the Dafeldecker Classic in Tampa, Fla., Sept. 2 & 4 against College of Charleston and host South Florida.
