SAN ANGELO, Texas – The Fort Lewis College women's soccer team will start the season facing a pair of regional opponents starting with Angelo State on Friday and then against Midwestern State on Sunday.
First up will be a meeting with Angelo State on Friday at 6 p.m. The Belles were 13-5-1 last year and were scheduled to play at Fort Lewis last year on Sep. 8, but the game was due to lightning. They ended up advancing to the South Central Regional falling in a tight 1-0 battle to West Texas A&M in the first round.
Trenadey Scott led ASU with 15 goals and she also added four assists for 34 points. She had five game-winning goals to her credit. Cassandra Moosburger was second in goals with six and tallied 14 total points. Avery McNeme and Megan Allen tied Scott for the team lead in assists with four. Sammy Cude played all but 21 minutes in net last year, tallying 89 saves and going 12-4, along with six shutouts. Scott and Moosburger are back, while Cude transferred to the University of Houston.
The Friday game will be the season opener for both teams.
To close the trip, the Skyhawks will stay in San Angelo and face Midwestern State on Sunday at 10 a.m. Head Coach Damian Clarke will face his former team right away after guiding the Mustangs for the previous four seasons. MSU will face Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) foe New Mexico Highlands in Wichita Falls to open the season on Thursday before facing FLC later in the week.
MSU went 11-8-1 last year and also advanced to the South Central Regional where they lost in a tough OT battle to RMAC opponent Colorado Mines, 1-0. Destinee Williams led the team in goals with seven and also added eight assists for 22 total points Kelly Cannistra also reached double-digits in points with 11. Raven Powell was second on the team in goals with four. In net, Courtney Burnette played all but six minutes last year, tallying 112 saves and an 11-8-1 record. Cannistra returns, while Williams and Burnette both graduated.
FLC will be without top scorer from 2017 in Alicia Sanchez who graduated after leading the team with 10 points and five goals. Emma Patron was second on the team and returns after tallying four goals and an assist. Britt Blomso and Kaylee Mickens return in net as the two each played in a pair of games last year. Blomso logged 90 minutes and had 10 saves, while Mickens was on the field for just over 73 minutes and added eight saves. Ali Miller led the team last year in logging over 1,300 minutes, 77 saves and had all four victories.
In the RMAC last year, the Skyhawks finished fifth in saves per game (6.0), good for 64th nationally, sixth in both total assists (11) and in assists per game (0.69), eighth in a trio of categories including scoring offense (1.06), total goals (17) and total points (45), while coming in ninth in terms of save percentage (75).
Live video and stats will be available for both games. After the two matches in Texas, FLC will return home for five straight starting with Eastern New Mexico on Friday, Sep. 7 beginning at 3 p.m.
