Pirates Open Season Against Old Dominion And Radford

GREENVILLE, N.C. – After two exhibitions, the ECU women's soccer team will take to the field for a regular season match for the first time under debut head coach Jason Hamilton when the Pirates take on Old Dominion and Radford this weekend.

"As a staff we are very excited to see what our team does in a game of meaning," Hamilton said. "This group has worked very hard during these first few weeks getting to know each other, learning how we want to play, and what it takes to compete at this level."

Pirate Debuts
Friday's match will be the official ECU debuts for 16 newcomers along with coach Hamilton and his staff. In the two exhibition matches that led into the season, eight of the newcomers started at least one game and 13 saw action. The newcomers made an immediate impact on the scoreboard with Carsen Parker scoring ECU's opening goal against VCU and Kat Gonzalez scoring the game-winning goal against Gardner-Webb. On the backline, Morgan Dewey picked up assists in both exhibition contests while Parker played all 180 minutes. Melanie Stiles has moved into the starting goalkeeper role for ECU, starting both exhibitions and playing the entire game against VCU.

Returners
2017 leading scorer Courtney Cash has picked up right where she left off, scoring in both exhibition contests. Cash scored a header in each match, both coming off feeds from Dewey. Jayda Hylton-Pelaia and Kim Sanford will provide experience on the backline, with both playing the full 90 minutes against VCU.

Dress Rehearsal
Before the regular season started, ECU played a pair of exhibition games to prepare. The Pirates challenged themselves right out of the gate, taking on a tough VCU team. ECU took 1-0 and 2-1 leads but could not hold on and fell 3-2. In the second exhibition, ECU once again took a 2-1 lead, this time against Gardner-Webb, and the prior experience proved helpful as the Pirates locked down on defense and held on for the victory.

"We saw a lot of growth from our first exhibition game to our second," added Hamilton. "We know with the talent that we have on this team, if we can continue to get better between each game, we can have a very successful year. If our staff and team can keep that focus, I am excited to see where we will go."

ECU In Openers
The Pirates will be playing their 25th season opening match on Friday against Old Dominion. ECU is 11-13 in their first 24 openers, including last season's 3-2 overtime win against Dayton. Cash had four points in the win, scoring a goal and adding two assists. Ashley Kendrot and Marianna Shurina also scored in the victory and Tori Riggs had an assist. ECU will be looking to win consecutive season-opening matches for the first time since winning three in a row from 2007 to 2009. Hamilton is trying to become the second ECU coach to mark his debut with a victory.

Home Sweet Home
ECU has won 17 of its first 24 home openers and is 3-4 in openers in Johnson Stadium. The Pirates won its first home match of the season in nine straight seasons from 2002 to 2010. The Pirates have had success at home against non-conference opponents recently, going 5-0-2 since losing to NC State on Sept. 8, 2016. Last season, ECU beat Dayton, Towson and UNC Wilmington at home and tied Old Dominion and then No. 5-ranked Virginia during the non-conference home portion of the schedule.

AAC Preseason Poll
The 2018 American Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll was released recently and the Pirates received 24 points to place eighth. Defending champions UCF took the top spot with 76 points and six first-place votes followed by USF with 73 points and three first-place votes. Memphis took the tenth and final first-place vote and finished with 68 points to place third. Rounding out the top ten was Cincinnati (54), SMU (53), UConn (39), Houston (34), ECU, Tulsa (18) and Temple (11).

Scouting Old Dominion
Old Dominion is coming off a 2017 season that finished with a 9-5-4 overall record and a 6-2-2 Conference-USA mark. The Monarchs' season came to an end in the conference quarterfinals, a game in which current Pirate and former Louisiana Tech forward Jenna Dages scored the game-winning goal. Old Dominion was picked to finish fourth in the C-USA Preseason Poll and Iris Achterhof was named to the C-USA Preseason Team. Achterhof has been named to a C-USA All-Conference team after each of her first three seasons and led Old Dominion with 17 points last season, as well as tying for the team lead in goals (five) and assists (seven).

All-Time Versus the Monarchs
ECU and Old Dominion have met 19 times in their history with Old Dominion holding a slight 10-8-1 advantage in the series. Friday's meeting will be the fourth consecutive year the two programs have played and each team has gone 1-1-1 in that span. In 2017, the two teams played to a 0-0 draw in Johnson Stadium. Cash scored ECU's lone goal in a losing effort of the 2016 edition of the rivalry.

Scouting Radford
Radford finished the 2017 season with an 11-7 record and a 4-5 Big South mark. The Highlanders were chosen as the fourth-best team in the conference in the Big South Preseason Coaches' Poll. Radford returns leading scorer Jasmine Casarez who was First Team All-Big South in 2017. Casarez scored 11 goals, three of which were game-winners, and racked up 23 points.

All-Time Versus the Highlanders
ECU and Radford will be meeting for the first time since 2001, with ECU having an all-time record of 4-2 against the Highlanders. The Pirates have beaten Radford all three times the Highlanders have traveled to Greenville.

"These first couple of games will be very challenging," said Hamilton. "Old Dominion was picked to finish fourth in Conference USA which is by far one of the best mid-major conferences in the country. Then we turn around and host Radford, who is returning almost all of their starting lineup, which will give them a lot of experience."

ECU will travel to Old Dominion with the match slated for a 7:00 pm kickoff on Friday night. Live stats can be found here. The home opener against Radford is scheduled for 7:00 pm on Sunday in Johnson Stadium. Tickets for the match are available here.

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Players Mentioned

Courtney Cash

Jenna Dages

Morgan Dewey

Kat Gonzalez

Jayda Hylton-Pelaia

Ashley Kendrot

Carsen Parker

Tori Riggs

Kim Sanford

Marianna Shurina

Melanie Stiles

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