The 2009-10 sports season at the University of Evansville kicks off Saturday evening when the Purple Aces' women's soccer team hosts the University of Kentucky in a 7:00 CDT exhibition match at Black Beauty Field.
The contest comes 11 months after the Aces beat the Wildcats during the 2008 regular season at Black Beauty Field 1-0. UE coach Krista McKendree has five returning starters and eight other letterwinners back from her 2008 Missouri Valley Conference championship team. UK has a new coach, Jon Lipsitz, who guided Charlotte to a 58-23-4 record over the last four years and won three Atlantic 10 championships. He has three of the top four scorers back from last season’s 5-12-2 team.
Five seniors who graduated in May accounted for 37 of Evansville’s 45 goals in 2008. The good news is that UE's defensive nucleus returns, led by junior goalkeeper Theresa Bagby, senior defenders Kasey Kutzler and Katelyn Smith, and senior defensive midfielder Kellee Widener. Bagby and Kutzler are this year’s team captains. The fifth returning starter is sophomore midfielder/forward Colleen Marty, UE’s top returning scorer with three goals and three assists for nine points.
On Tuesday, the Purple Aces were selected as a top 50 team in the Top Drawer Soccer.com pre-season national poll. Top Drawer ranked UE first in the Missouri Valley Conference and 49th nationally. On Wednesday, however, the judgment was harsher in the official MVC coaches’ poll, where UE is picked to finish fourth. Senior defender Kasey Kutzler was the only Evansville player chosen for the 12-person MVC Pre-Season Team. Here’s how the MVC coaches voted: 1. Illinois State (44); 2. Missouri State (37); 3. Creighton (32); 4. Evansville (31); 5. Drake (26); 6. UNI (15); 7. Indiana State (11).
Evansville has won more Missouri Valley Conference women’s soccer championships (five MVC regular season titles, six MVC Tournaments) than any other school, and no one in the MVC has played in more NCAA Tournament matches than Evansville (four). UE has also produced a league-high 18 members of the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team since 2000.
