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Women's Soccer featured in NAIA Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll
By Matt Green
2011 NAIA Women's Soccer Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll
KANSAS CITY -- The Shorter University women's soccer team picked up one vote in the 2011 NAIA Women's Soccer Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll, which was released by the NAIA on Tuesday evening.
The Lady Hawks, fresh off the program's first-ever 10-win season, are one of six schools from the Southern States Athletic Conference to appear in this year's preseason ratings.
Three-time defending national champion Lee University will open the 2011 campaign as the country's top-ranked team while William Carey (No. 11), Mobile (No. 13), Auburn-Montgomery (No. 25) and Faulkner (one vote) also garnered preseason recognition.
"It is exciting for us to be recognized in the preseason national rankings," said Shorter second-year head coach Jennifer Colley, who guided the Lady Hawks to a 10-8-1 overall record in 2010, her first year at the helm of the program. "We have a long road ahead of us this season to compete with not only the five other teams from our league that appear in the Top 25, but the many great teams across the SSAC."
The Lady Hawks bring back nearly everyone from last year's squad, a unit that posted a 6-1 mark in the SSAC and earned the No. 2 seed out of the East Division for the SSAC Tournament.
Leading Shorter's list of returnees are All-Conference strikers Kelli Davis and Brandi Greenwald, who combined to score 11 goals and dish out 11 assists in 2010. Davis, a sophomore, picked up SSAC All-Freshman honors after scoring six goals and handing out five assists while Greenwald earned her second career SSAC All-Conference award by putting up five goals and a team-high six assists in 2010.
Midfielder and senior captain Mary Kate Lollar also returns to the lineup to anchor Shorter's midfield and junior goalkeeper Taylor Hays, who set a school record with six shutouts in 2010, enters the 2011 season as the program's all-time shutouts leader with eight in her first two seasons.
The Lady Hawks added a host of young talent to its experience, most notably Brazilian midfielders Aline Bez Tamiosso and Cintia Lamas, each of which hails from Campinas, Sao Paulo. Tamiosso scored 28 goals and posted 10 assists at Cowley Community College last season while Lamas brings speed and playmaking ability to the Lady Hawk midfield.
Shorter opens the season at home on Saturday, August 27 against Montreat College in a 6 p.m. kickoff. The Lady Hawks' SSAC opener is slated for Sept. 23 at 13th-ranked Mobile.
You can find the complete NAIA Women's Soccer Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll by clicking on this link.
