Ladyjack Soccer Prepares to Scrimmage SMU
8/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Aug. 19, 2005
NACOGDOCHES - The defending Southland Conference Champion Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack soccer team opens the 2005 season Saturday night in a scrimmage against SMU. The game against the Mustangs is slated to begin at 7 p.m., from the SFA Intramural Complex.
"The purpose of this game is to evaluate the team at this point of the preseason," said first-year head coach Jaime Frias. "Although we always compete to win, tomorrow's game will not be result oriented. I will try to give every player an opportunity to play and see how each of them handles the environment they're put in."
The Ladyjacks return 13 letterwinners from last year's team including, eight starters. The Ladyjacks return a ton of explosive talent across the board including three-time all-conference defender Kim Gray, three-time all-conference goalkeeper Natascia Michalezki and 2004 SLC leading scorer Shahin Pabani.
Although there is no clear-cut favorite in a very tough Southland Conference this year, the Ladyjacks have been picked to tie for first in all the preseason polls. The league head coaches picked SFA to tie with Northwestern State, while the league sports information director's picked SFA to tie with Texas State.
"I want to see how our team responds to a competitive game environment," said Frias. "This game will help me assess what areas of our game need the most attention. It will also let me know what combination of players work best with each other as I look at them in different positions."
The Ladyjacks will open regular-season play Friday Aug. 28, against Texas A&M. The game is slated to begin at 8 p.m., in College Station, Texas.
-SFA-
