CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's soccer team will open the 2017 with a pair of home matches. The Mocs will take on Austin Peay in the season-opener Friday, August 18 at 7:00 p.m. Sunday's matchup against Eastern Kentucky will kick off at 2:00 p.m. Admission is free to all of Chattanooga's home matches.
"We're as ready as we can be to this point," Chattanooga head coach
Gavin McKinney said. "Our preseason was 2-1/2 week essentially before our first game. It's a pretty condensed camp. We learned a lot from our two preseason games. Hopefully we can build off those. We think we've fixed a few things leading into this weekend."
SCOUTING THE MOCS
Chattanooga returns eight from last season's squad that finished tied for fifth in the Southern Conference standings, its best finish since 2005. Sophomore
Jordan Mueller, a SoCon All-Freshman Team selection last season, returns to the lineup. She ranked third on the team in scoring and second for most goals. Senior
McKenzie Gregg led the team in assists in 2016 and was fifth on the team in scoring. She has seven career goals and nine assists from her midfield position. Starting keeper sophomor
Melia Correa makes her return and will be joined in the net by transfer
Bailey Coppedge and redshirt sophomore
Molli Miller. In preseason play, the Mocs earned a 1-1 draw at Tennessee Tech and fell 3-0 to Belmont. Both contests were played on the road. Freshman
Chloe Arnold scored the Mocs goal against the Golden Eagles.
"We really like the makeup and personality of the team," McKinney said. "We think its a bunch of kids that want to learn and get better. They are willing to work for each other and battle for each other. We think they've been fantastic in their approach and mentality up to this point. Our team retreat was great from a team-building standpoint. They got to know each other better.
"We're excited to see where this season takes us."
CHATTANOOGA vs. AUSTIN PEAY
The Mocs and the Lady Govs have met 11 times with UTC trailing the series 3-8. APSU has won each of the last seven meetings including a 3-2 match in Clarksville, Tenn., last year. All five goals in the match were scored in the second half.
SCOUTING THE GOVS
Austin Peay won both preseason matches, defeating Indiana State 3-0 and Western Illinois 4-2. McKenzie Dixon had a team-best three goals in the preseason and Claire Lorose had a pair. The Lady Govs 2016 leading scorer Kirsten Robertson had one goal and one assist in exhibition play. She had 11 goals last season along with five assists for 27 points.
"Hopefully we can perform against Austin Peay who is a really good side," McKinney said. "They won both of their preseason games and had an excellent spring. We anticipate a really good game."
CHATTANOOGA vs. EASTERN KENTUCKY
The two teams have met four times with Eastern Kentucky leading the series 2-1-1. Last year's match was the first in eight years between the two teams with the Colonels coming out on top 1-0.
SCOUTING THE COLONELS
Eastern Kentucky won a share of the OVC regular season last year. They return two of their top four scorers from last season. Jordan Foster led the team with eight golas and five assists and had four game winning goals. Emmi Carroll was third on the team with three goals, four assists for 10 points. The Colonels went 1-1 in the preseason, defeating Marshall in the first exhibition match 2-1 before dropping a 2-1 decision to Indiana State.
"Eastern Kentucky won a share of the OVC regular season last year," McKinney said. "They are organized and disciplined and found ways to grind out results last fall. We played them at their place so we are somewhat familiar with them. They could be different but you never know. You go in blind and have to worry more about ourselves."
The game is set to kick off Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Finley Stadium with Sunday game a 2:00 p.m. start. Follow all the action online at GoMocs.com. Live scoring and streaming video will be available on the schedule page of GoMocs.
"These are the types of games we want to open with," McKinney said. "We want to be tested early. We're excited for the challenge of both games. You learn more in competitive games like these."
