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Aug. 28, 2010
Complete Notes Package In PDF Format UTEP To Play Host To Utah Valley University UTEP will square off against defending Big West Conference champion Utah Valley University at 1 p.m. at University Field on Sunday. The Miners (1-1) are coming off a hard-fought 2-1 hands at the hands of Fresno State on Friday. The Wolverines (1-2) also will be looking to rebound, as they were bounced by Texas State, 1-0, in the opening-round match of the 13th-annual Miners’ Classic on Friday.
Battle Of TSU & FSU Up First To ensure a good parking spot for the UTEP vs. Utah Valley University contest, fans are reminded that the first game of the day will pit Fresno State (1-2) against Texas State (1-1) at 10:30 a.m. All contests this weekend in the Sun City are being held as part of the 13th-annual Miners’ Classic.
Did You Know Utah Valley University snuck past UTEP, 1-0, at University Field on Sept. 6, 2009, but the Miners have been good under Kevin Cross in exacting revenge upon that opponent’s return to El Paso. UTEP stands at 9-0-0 in the situation, and it has out-paced the opposition to the tune of 25-5 in those tilts.
Wins A Plenty For UTEP At Miners’ Classic Even with the 2-1 setback to Fresno State on Friday, UTEP stands at 20-6-0 all time at the Miners’ Classic. It has claimed the crown seven times (most recently in 2008) and has out-paced its foes by a combined score of 81-21 in those matches.
All About Sunday’s Promos It will be “student-athletes supporting student-athletes” day for UTEP’s contest against Utah Valley University on Sunday. Additionally, there will be a free soccer clinic following the contest with the popular “Mini Miners Sunday Fun Day”,
All About The Seasonal Promotions There are some great promotions that will be in place throughout the 2010 UTEP soccer season. The “Team Days Promo” will allow area teams (players and coaches) to attend one regular-season home game for free while also receiving recognition during the game. Friends and family members will receive a discounted ticket price of $2 per person. Additionally, with the “Mini Miners Sunday Fun Day”, selected UTEP players and staff will teach young soccer players in a clinic immediately following every Sunday home game.
All About The Tickets For Sunday’s Match Tickets for the match (1 p.m. kickoff) are on sale at the UTEP ticket center, and they may also be purchased on site prior to the start of the match day. The price for an adult admission, which includes the surcharge fee, is $7 while children (ages 12 or younger) are priced at $3.
Quick Rundown On The Wolverines In 2010 Utah Valley University sports a mark of 1-2 on the campaign. It posted a convincing 2-0 triumph against Southern Utah to kick off its season in fine fashion on Aug. 20. The Wolverines’ seven-match winning streak (dating to last year) was halted in a 4-0 setback at Utah State on Aug. 22. UVU fell by a final count of 1-0 against Texas State in the first day of the 13th-annual Miners’ Classic on Friday.
Getting To Know You Utah Valley University returned seven starters and 17 letterwinners overall-including nine seniors- from its 2009 Big West Championship team (9-10-1, 5-0-1). It was tabbed to repeat as division champion this year. Notable returnees include 2009 all-conference performers Nicole Archibald Spencer, Jaime Lyons and Lauren Bluth as well as GWC Tournament MVP Katey Turner. The Wolverines are under the direction of Brent Anderson, who is in his fifth year at the helm and is the longest tenured coach in program history. He sports a career mark of 34-42-5, including 16-1-1 in conference play the past three years.
Fresno State Sneaks Past UTEP, 2-1 UTEP dug itself an early hole and could not quite recover in falling by a final count of 2-1 to Fresno State on Friday. The Bulldogs staked the early advantage on a strike by Claudia Cardenas (17:54) and then made it 2-0 after Laura Dodd scored at 53:03. UTEP regrouped nicely, with Katie Dorman tallying her first goal of the campaign off a nice feed from Anoop Josan at 67:17. Less than a minute later a Brittany Kindzierski shot beat the FSU netminder only to only to clank off the crossbar. The Miners, who finished with 11 shots in the game, continued to pressure down the stretch but could not complete the comeback.
Miners Have History Of Bouncing Back The match against Utah Valley University will afford the Miners the chance to rebound from their 2-1 setback against Fresno State on Friday, and history is on their side. UTEP stands at 11-3-2 in contests following a non-conference defeat since 2002.
AJ Is All About The Assist Senior Anoop Josan registered her first assist of 2010 and 22nd of her career on Katie Dorman’s strike against Fresno State on Friday. She rates fourth all time at the school for career helpers, trailing only Kia Sams (24, 2002-05), Cara Nordin (25, 2005-08) and Kelly Parker (1999-02). Stay tuned...
The Iron Woman Melissa Desilets, a co-captain and one of two seniors on the 2010 squad, was on the pitch for all 90 minutes of action against Fresno State on Friday. Dating to last year she has now played every minute for 18 straight matches. It is the longest such stretch at the school since Ashleigh Decker put together a streak of 20 straight games (2004 & 2005). In fact, Desilets has missed a total of eight minutes of action over the last 34 contests since midway through the 2008 campaign.
What’s In A Name While most Miner fans are familiar with how to pronounce the names of their favorite players, here is a quick rundown on some of the more challenging ones for those who need a refresher.
Anoop Josan= Ah-NEWP Joe-SAHN Brittany Kindzierski= Kin-d-Jer-SKI Kenah Linger= Ken-uh Linger Azia Nicholson= Asia Nicholson
Skye High Last year Skye Schultz stormed onto the scene by registering eight goals (t-2nd team/t-6th C-USA/156th nation), nine assists (1st C-USA/32nd nation) for 25 points (1st team/3rd C-USA/76th nation). She was tabbed as the Conference USA Freshman of the Year and was an NSCAA All-Central Region third-team member. Schultz started all but one match, and registered at least point in 13 of the 20 matches on the campaign. She has recorded four shots, including a team-high-tying two shots on goal but has yet to score in 2010.
Hall’s Heroics In The Crunch Sophomore MF Tess Hall proved to be a dominant force in the midfield in her rookie campaign a year ago. She served as the primary server for all set pieces and corner kicks while racking up six assists (2nd team/7th C-USA). She was at her best, though, with the match on the line. That was no more evident than her tallying four game-winning helpers. Hall has started both matches on the year but has not yet recorded a point. She has, though, accounted for a squad-tying-best five shots.
This IS UTEP Soccer The city of El Paso has embraced the UTEP soccer program since its inception, and the Miners have rewarded the faithful by turning into a league and regional power. Head coach Kevin Cross has guided the Miners to incredible heights.
Home Sweet Home Even though UTEP was dealt a 2-1 loss by Fresno State on Friday, opponents should still be concerned when venturing to El Paso. The Miners are 71-11-3 at University Field since 2002. In those 85 contests the Orange and Blue have out-scored their foes to the tune of 244-70. For math fans, the average score of a UTEP home game since 2002 is UTEP 2.9, its Opponent, 0.8.
Miners Love The Big Crowds For some teams, playing in front of a big crowd at home can add pressure and actually make it tougher to play well. That is certainly not the case for UTEP during Kevin Cross’ tenure. For the Miners, it is a simple equation. The larger the crowd, the better they play. The breakdown for UTEP’s record in correlation for the crowd size since 2002 is as follows: 1,000+ fans: 6-0-0 900+ fans: 10-0-0 800+ fans: 12-0-0 700+ fans: 13-1-1 600+fans: 22-1-1 500+fans: 28-2-2 400+fans: 37-6-2
Looking To Lead C-USA In Attendance Again UTEP has paced Conference USA in attendance the past four years, and it has aspirations of doing so again in 2010. Last year the Miners topped the league in home average (642) and overall home fans (7,703), both of which set program standards.
Winning Ways Of UTEP Soccer UTEP has registered eight consecutive winning campaigns, all of which featured at least 10 victories. The Miners mustered only one such season (1998) before head coach Kevin Cross’ tenure. UTEP has the most wins (76) of any league school since joining Conference USA in 2005. Memphis (72) and UCF (69) rate second and third, respectively.
Talking Regional Rankings UTEP was ranked 10th in this weeks NSCAA’s Central Region poll. It has now garnered a spot in the regional rankings for a school-record seven straight seasons and in eight of head coach Kevin Cross’ 10 years. Prior to his appointment, UTEP managed the feat twice out of a possible six years.
All About The Schedule The Miners (1-1-0) will have played 20 games (10 home, 10 road) by the end of the 2010 regular season. There will have been nine non-conference tilts (six home, three road) and 11 Conference USA matches. UTEP has only four league home matches due C-USA coaches voting on an unbalanced schedule. Seven of their final nine C-USA contests will have been in hostile territory.
All About The Roster UTEP (1-1-0) returned five starters and 10 letterwinners from the 2009 team (13-6-1) while adding eight true freshmen. Notable returnees included 2009 C-USA Freshman of the Year Skye Schultz, seniors Melissa Desilets and Anoop Josan and junior keepers Chandra Morden and Sara Kaltwasser.
Breaking Down The Team Stat Wise Entering the start of the 2010 season, UTEP’s returning field players combined for the following career stats: games played: 282, games started: 178, minutes played: 16,458, minutes per game: 58.4, goals: 28, assists: 53, points: 104, shots: 373, shots on goal: 164, game-winning goals: Six, game-winning assists: 16.
Youth Served UTEP’s 2010 roster features eight freshmen, which equals the second-highest total in the Kevin Cross era. In 2008, the Miners’ had nine freshmen on the squad. The school record for most freshmen in a single season was in 2000 (14), which was the last year Veronica O’Brien directed the Orange and Blue.
Hey, We Need Coaches Too Kevin Cross, the winningest coach in school history, is in his 10th year on the sideline for the Miners. Overall he is 118-58-8, including 47-29-5 in league play, since taking over the program in 2001. He was UTEP’s top assistant from 1997-2000, aiding the team to a mark of 38-36-5. While each of his assistants are in the first year as full-time staff members (Heather Clark & Jo Radcliffe), they are both certainly very familiar names to Miner faithful. Clark was a four-year starter on defense for UTEP from 2001-04 while Radcliffe was a fixture in the top-11 in her three years in the Sun City from 2007-09.
CLIFFSNOTES ON THE YEAR THAT HAS BEEN UTEP Downs NAU, 1-0, In Season Opener Sophomore Brittany Kindzierski scored off a cross from Katie Dorman at 19:07 of the first half and junior goalkeeper Chandra Morden made seven saves to help lead UTEP to a 1-0 victory at home against Northern Arizona on Aug. 22. The Miners dictated the tempo for most of the match, and outshot the two-time defending Big Sky champions and 2008 & 2009 NCAA Tournament participant Lumberjacks by a final count of 18-11.
Keeping The Good Times Going UTEP is now 12-3 in campaign lidlifters, and it has outscored the opposition by a count of 46-15 in those games. The Miners have won their past five and are 9-1 in the situation under head coach Kevin Cross.
Doing So With Shutouts For the third straight season and the fourth time in the past five years, UTEP opened up the campaign with a 1-0 win.
Morden Hits Double Digits For Blankings With the effort against Northern Arizona on Aug. 22, Chandra Morden became the third netminder in program history to register at least 10 career shutouts. Brittany Popoff and Amanda Smith share the school record at 18.
Nabs C-USA Defensive Player of Week Award For the second time of her career, UTEP’s Chandra Morden has been chosen as the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week. The junior GK turned away all seven shots faced, including a stop on a one-on-one chance in the 61st minute, to help lead the Miners to the 1-0 win vs. Northern Arizona on Aug. 22. She becomes the fourth Miner netminder to be so recognized on multiple occasions, joining former standouts Brittany Popoff (three times) Kyla Clark (twice) and Jessica Salvi (twice).
The Trend Continues Freshmen Kenah Linger, Tori Martyn and Azia Nicholson earned starting nods in the 1-0 victory against Northern Arizona on Aug. 22. The Miners have now had at least one freshman in the top 11 in the season opener every year but one. The lone season UTEP didn’t start a freshman in the campaign lidlifter was in 2005. That season turned out just fine, though, with the Orange and Blue finishing at a school-record best 20-4-1 while advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Six Newcomers Debut Overall In addition to the three freshmen starters (Kenah Linger, Tori Martyn and Azia Nicholson), fellow rookies Jade Babock, Maggie Schaffer and Gina Soto earned playing time in the 1-0 triumph against Northern Arizona on Aug. 22. Martyn was the lone player in the group to register stats, doing so with three shot attempts.
The Match That Wasn’t UTEP was supposed to have initiated its 2010 season on the road against I-10 rival NM State but the match was deemed “no contest” due to persistent lightning on Aug. 20. The delay started at halftime of what can best be described as a “ghost game”. Individuals at Aggie Memorial Stadium that evening may think that they were witness to UTEP playing beautiful soccer while dictating tempo and controlling all facets of the game over the first 45 minutes. In the end, though, nothing really happened since the suspended tilt never resumed.
 
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