 Billikens Prepare For A-10 Championship
Nov. 3, 2009
THIS WEEK - Saint Louis, the No. 5 seed for the 17th Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Soccer Championship, will face No. 4 St. Bonaventure in the quarterfinals Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. (CT). Transamerica Field in Charlotte, N.C., is the site of the six-team tournament, the winner of which will be the A-10's automatic NCAA Tournament representative. BILLIKENS, BONNIES HAVE SCORE TO SETTLE - Saint Louis (7-8-4, 4-4-3 A-10) and St. Bonaventure (10-10-0, 7-4-0) will reprise their 2008 A-10 Championship quarterfinal meeting that saw the Billikens defeat the Bonnies 2-1 at Robert R. Hermann Stadium. SLU, which won the A-10 Championship in 2005 and 2006, enters the tournament with a boost provided by a 0-0 tie against nationally ranked Charlotte in the regular-season finale last Friday. St. Bonaventure won a program-best seven league games this season, including a 1-0 decision over the Bills Sept. 27 in Olean, N.Y. THE REST OF THE FIELD - No. 3 Fordham (8-11-1, 7-4-0) and No. 6 Massachusetts (6-10-0, 5-6-0) will play the first quarterfinal Thursday at 4:30 p.m. (CT). The Rams won five of their last six A-10 games, including Sunday's 2-0 triumph over St. Bonaventure to vault past the Bonnies. The Minutewomen passed several tournament hopefuls by winning their final two contests. Friday's first semifinal will match host and No. 2 seed Charlotte (15-2-2, 9-0-2) against the higher-seeded winner from the quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m. (CT). The 49ers, who own a 27-game unbeaten streak against conference opponents, are seeking their third consecutive A-10 Championship title. The second semifinal pits top-seeded Dayton (14-0-5, 10-0-1) vs. the lower-seeded quarterfinal winner at 7 p.m. (CT). The Flyers enjoyed their first undefeated regular season while allowing just five goals, the fewest in the nation. Sunday's title match is slated for Sunday at noon (CT). BILLIKENS VS. A-10 CHAMPIONSHIP PARTICIPANTS - In addition to their tie vs. Charlotte and their loss to St. Bonaventure, the Billikens fell 2-1 to Dayton in overtime and blanked Massachusetts 4-0 in regular-season play. Saint Louis did not play Fordham this season.
FOLLOWING THE ACTION - Live audio and video streaming of the A-10 Championship will be available for $7.95 per day. Annual subscribers to Billiken All-Access can view the action for no charge. All matches will be available free of charge on GameTracker. For complete coverage, including ticket prices and directions to the Charlotte campus, visit the A-10 Championship tournament central page at www.atlantic10.com/championships/2009-w-soc-champ.html. BRINGIN' THEIR A-GAME - Senior midfielder Ashley Hayes and senior goalkeeper Amber Zdanovec write a weekly blog, available only on www.slubillikens.com, to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the 2009 Billiken women's soccer team. "Bringin' Their A-Game" can be found on the women's soccer page. YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, THEY HAVE ANSWERS - A new feature on www.slubillikens.com is "Meet the Billikens," a question-and-answer session with a different student-athlete each week. Emily Kryzer is the current featured Billiken, and Kristyn Gawin is scheduled for later this week. ABOUT THE BILLIKENS - Senior back Susan Frederickson (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's) owns the team scoring lead with 14 points (5G, 4A), and junior forward Ashley Brazill (St. Charles, Mo./Incarnate Word) is right behind with 13 points (3G, 7A). Sophomore midfielder Andrea Barklage (Lake St. Louis, Mo./Incarnate Word) also is in double figures with 10 points (4G, 2A). Senior midfielder Ashley Hayes (St. Louis, Mo./Incarnate Word) has eight points (2G, 4A), followed by senior midfielder/forward Kelly Waeckerle (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway West) with seven points (1G, 5A), senior midfielder Kristen Sapienza (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's) with five points (2G, 1A) and junior midfielder Christina Brown (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) with four points (2G). Senior back Sally Sinclair (St. Louis, Mo./Cor Jesu), freshman midfielder Allison Hu (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) and freshman back Maggie Baumann (Wildwood, Mo./St. Joseph's) have drilled the back of the net once. Sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Perry (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North) owns a 0.66 goals against average and seven shutouts. Perry has combined for two shutouts with senior Amber Zdanovec (Appleton, Wis./Appleton East), who has a 1.20 GAA. LAST WEEK - The Billikens battled 24th-ranked Charlotte to a scoreless draw in the regular-season finale at Robert R. Hermann Stadium last Friday. The tie cost the 49ers a share of a third consecutive A-10 regular-season title. Hannah Perry stopped a point-blank shot in the final five seconds of the second overtime to preserve the deadlock. The save was one of seven registered by Perry, tying her season high, and was the last of her three saves in the two overtime periods. Saint Louis registered a 20-15 advantage in shots, including a 10-3 margin in a first half the Billikens dominated. Ashley Hayes led all players with a career-high six shots, including a pair on goal, while Kelly Waeckerle tallied a game-high three shots on frame. SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE - Junior forward Courtney Bosse leads the Bonnies with 17 points (8G, 1A), followed by sophomore midfielder/forward Tori Burchett with 11 points (5G, 1A) and junior forward Anna Cunningham with 10 points (3G, 4A). Sophomore back/midfielder Janelle Taylor and sophomore forward Dakota Carroll have five and four assists, respectively. Junior Nicole Markert owns a 1.04 GAA, an .830 save percentage and five shutouts. Head coach Manoj Khettry is 28-45-4 in four seasons, all at St. Bonaventure. THE ST. BONAVENTURE SERIES - The Billikens lead the series 3-1. Kaitlin Krisko's goal in the second minute gave St. Bonaventure a 1-0 victory in the teams' regular-season meeting Sept. 27 in Olean, N.Y. Saint Louis captured a 2-1 victory in the 2008 A-10 Championship quarterfinals at Hermann Stadium. SLU defeated St. Bonaventure 3-0 in 2006 and 2-0 in 2007. BILLIKENS IN THE A-10 STATISTICAL RANKINGS - For all games, Saint Louis is third in goals against average (0.75), shutouts (nine) and shots per game (16.32) and fourth in assists per game (1.32) and corner kicks per game (4.79). Hannah Perry is second in GAA (0.66) and tied for second in shutouts (seven). Kelly Waeckerle is third in shots per game (3.06), Ashley Brazill is tied for sixth in assists per game (0.37) and Andrea Barklage is tied for 10th in shots per game (2.50). In the final statistics for A-10 games, the Billikens finished second in shots per game (18.73), third in goals against average (0.76), tied for third in assists per game (1.36), tied for fourth in shutouts (five) and fifth in points per game (4.09). Waeckerle led the league in shots per game (3.91), and Brazill tied for the conference lead in assists per game (0.55) while also tying for seventh in points per game (1.09). Perry was third in GAA (0.58), tied for third in shutouts (three) and fourth in save percentage (.821), and Barklage ranked 10th in shots per game (2.62). BILLIKENS IN THE NCAA STATISTICAL RANKINGS - In this week's NCAA statistics report, Saint Louis is 40th in goals against average and 58th in shutout percentage. Individually, Hannah Perry is 31st in GAA. ASCENDING THE CAREER CHARTS - On the Saint Louis career goalkeeping lists, Hannah Perry is second in goals against average (0.72), third in shutouts (17) and minutes (3,480), and fourth in wins (17) and saves (114). Kelly Waeckerle is tied for seventh on the Bills' career chart in shots (153) and ranks eighth in game-winning goals (seven). HEAD COACH Tim Champion - The only head coach in Saint Louis women's soccer history, Tim Champion is in his 17th season overall as a collegiate head coach and his 14th season at the Billiken helm. Champion owns a 166-87-30 record (.640) at SLU and an overall mark of 226-101-33 (.674). He has led his teams to three regular-season conference championships and two conference tournament titles. Champion became the first head coach to guide a SLU women's program to the NCAA Tournament when his 2005 Billikens made the first of two consecutive NCAA appearances. His .685 win percentage and 219 victories at the beginning of the season ranked 23rd and 29th, respectively, among all coaches with at least 10 seasons as an NCAA Division I head coach. The win percentage was 24th in the nation and the victory total was 23rd among active coaches with at least five years as a Division I head coach. Joining Champion this season are assistant coaches Kelly Ferguson and Thom Champion and volunteer assistant Rob LaMear. HERMANN STADIUM - Billiken women's soccer is tough to beat on Robert R. Hermann Stadium's state-of-the-art natural grass. Since the facility re-opened in 1999, the Bills are 79-21-9 (.766) at home, including 45-7-6 (.828) in league play. |
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