The Week – 8/20/12

It’s here. The 2012-13 sports year has begun. Football, cross country and tennis don’t get started until next week. So, for this week…

Women’s soccer is the only sport to play games that count so far. And in those games, they are 2-0. A member of the message board pointed out that this is the first time the team has started a season 2-0 since 1995 – the last year in D2. Next up for the Bears is Friday’s home contest with Lipscomb. Lipscomb is 1-1 and also breaking in a new head coach this season. The 2011 Bears travelled to Nashville a year ago and left with a 1-0 win – meaning 3-0 isn’t out of the question. Following that up will be another match in Conway, this one against Louisiana Tech who finished 8-8-4 and winless against Southland teams last season.

Women’s Soccer
Friday – 4pm vs. Lipscomb
Sunday – 1pm vs. Louisiana Tech

Men’s soccer has played three exhibition games and is ready to get this started in games that count on Friday at Loyola University Chicago. And this Bears team  is trying to begin 2012 like it did 2011 – with a win. The problem last year was that they finished the season with a total of just two. Loyola started out slowly in 2011 before winning five straight regular season matches to advance to the first round of the NCAA tournament. This team is a lot different though with 13 new players on the roster. The Bears will leave Chicago and drive over to Macomb, Illinois, to take on Western Illinois after that. The good news is that we could find out early in the season just how good the Bears are because the Leathernecks are picked to win the Summit League. Like Loyola, WIU was also beaten in the first round of the NCAA College Cup. Two of the six home games are next weekend, so if you want to see the team play, before the end of September, you better make plans to be there.

Men’s Soccer
Friday – 4pm vs. Loyola University Chicago
Sunday – 1pm vs. Western Illinois

As seems to be the case with volleyball, the early season is filled with tournaments again this year. And again, both tournaments are on the road. The first starts Friday in Hattiesburg, Miss., and may be the most difficult of the two, but the biggest challenge may not come until Sunday’s match against host school Southern Miss. South Alabama and Louisiana Tech will be first up on Friday. South Alabama had just an 11-17 record in 2011. LaTech was just 10-22 and finished winless in conference play. Southern Miss though was 17-15 on the year and finished the season winning four of five.

Volleyball
Friday – 11am vs. South Alabama
Friday – 3pm vs. Louisiana Tech
Sunday – 11am vs. Southern Miss