Women's Soccer Starts Conference Play This Week
September 17, 2003 | Soccer
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The East Carolina women's soccer team will open conference play this weekend when it plays USF on Friday, Sept. 19, at Transamerica Field in Charlotte, N.C., and Southern Miss on Sunday, Sept. 21, at Bunting Field in Greenville.
Friday afternoon's match against the Bulls (1-3-0), which was to be played in Greenville, has been moved to Charlotte due to the possible landfall of Hurricane Isabel on Thursday. The Lady Pirates will leave Greenville at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday and head to Charlotte, where they will be able to continue their preparations for the Bulls.
ECU owns an 11-6-4 overall record in two years of Conference USA play and head coach Rob Donnenwirth knows that league games are important.
"League play is obviously a critical time for us, with only eight teams out of 14 making the playoffs," said Donnenwirth. "Every game is going to be a battle even when the talent level of teams looks lopsided on paper, there always seems to be good games played."
The Pirates lead the overall series against both USF and Southern Miss, 1-0, and Donnenwirth expects tough battles against each.
"South Florida is a good team." said Donnenwirth. "Even though their record doesn't show it, every game they've played has been a one goal game. Southern Miss (5-0-1) is undefeated right now and has been playing some outstanding soccer so far. The margin for victory in this league is very slim, so we're going to have to bring our 'A' game if we want to win."
The Pirates are looking to improve on last years third place C-USA finish, which saw them finish with a 5-2-3 record.
