Trojans Set for Sun Belt Openers at Texas State, App State

GM 11 >> Little Rock at Texas State
Friday, Sept. 25 • 7 p.m. (CST)
San Marcos, Texas • Bobcat Soccer Complex
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
 
GM 12 >> Little Rock at Appalachian State
Sunday, Sept. 27 • 11 a.m. (CST)
Boone, N.C. • Appalachian Soccer Stadium
Live Stats | Game Notes
 
LITTLE ROCK – The Trojan soccer team ended its non-conference season in impressive fashion, earning a 0-0 tie at Texas on Sunday. But with that game now behind them, the Trojans will head to Texas State and Appalachian State for a challenging road swing to open Sun Belt Conference action. Little Rock will face the Bobcats at 7 p.m. on Friday to start the trip.
 
LEADING OFF

• Little Rock enters Sun Belt Conference play above .500 for the second consecutive season, posting a 5-4-1 record in non-conference games.
• The Trojans are coming off a 0-0 tie at Texas that saw Sara Small make eight saves to give the team a great result at a Big 12 Conference school. That performance earned her the Sun Belt Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week award for the second time this year.
• Seven different Trojans played all 110 minutes at Texas in the 90-plus-degree heat of Austin: Small, Bailey Fithian, Mikayla Uyokpeyi, Claire Palmer, Nora Hellmers, Hali Long and Caitlyn Eddy.
• With conference play now beginning, Little Rock will be looking to make the SBC Tournament for the third consecutive season.
• Little Rock ranks in the top five among Sun Belt Conference teams in shots, saves and corner kicks.
• The Trojans have never beaten Texas State or Appalachian State, though they have only played those teams a combined three times.

 
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ABOUT TEXAS STATE

• The Bobcats, based out of San Marcos, Texas, are 6-2-0 on the year before conference play begins. They are currently riding a five-game winning streak dating back to Sept. 4.
• Included in Texas State's current streak are wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Prairie View A&M, Stephen F. Austin, New Mexico State and Lamar. Their RPI to this point is 158.
• Texas State is tops in the Sun Belt with 2.25 assists per game and has the fewest goals allowed per team with six total.
• Lauren Prater is the Bobcats' and Sun Belt's leading scorer, posting seven goals and an assist for 15 points this season. Lynsey Curry, Kassi Hormuth and Kira Zapalac all have two goals while Curry and Hormuth have also added four assists apiece.
• Goalkeeper Caitlyn Rinehart has played all eight games this year for Texas State, posting a league-best four shutouts and a 0.75 goals against average. She has also saved 75 percent of shots taken at her.
• Bobcats coach Kat Conner is in her 17th year with Texas State and holds a 173-140-23 record in that span.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST TEXAS STATE
Little Rock and Texas State have squared off just twice – both since the Bobcats joined the Sun Belt two years ago – and Texas State won both contests. The Bobcats won in 2013 by a 4-0 score and claimed a 2-1 win in Little Rock last year after the Trojans took a first-half lead.
 
A WIN AGAINST TEXAS STATE WOULD…
…be the Trojans' first ever in the series…begin Sun Belt play with a victory for the first time since 2008.
 
ABOUT APPALACHIAN STATE

• The Mountaineers, who hail from Boone, N.C., are 4-3-2 this season and are coming off a tie on Sunday at UNC-Greensboro. The Mountaineers last won a game on Sept. 11 against High Point.
• Appalachian State has wins this year against UNC Wilmington, Mercer, UMBC and High Point. Their losses have come to Radford, George Mason and Duke. Their RPI of 84 is the highest in the Sun Belt.
• The Mountaineers are last in the Sun Belt in points, goals, goals per game, assists and assists per game. They are the only team in the league with fewer than 10 goals this year.
• Merlin Beckwith enters the weekend as the Mountaineers' top scorer. She has two goals and three assists for a total of seven points. Sam Childress also has two goals on the year.
• In net, Megan Roberson has the most time in net. She has a 1.27 goals against average, a .750 save percentage and two solo shutouts on the year.
• For the sixth year, Sarah Strickland is the Mountaineers' coach. She has a 41-48-14 mark leading App State.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST APPALACHIAN STATE
The Trojans and Mountaineers have only played each other one time, and that game took place last year in Little Rock. App State won by a 3-0 score.
 
A WIN AGAINST APPALACHIAN STATE WOULD…
…be the Trojans' first-ever victory against Appalachian State…even the lifetime series with App State at 1-1.
 
LITTLE ROCK VS. THE SUN BELT
Since the Trojans joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2000, the team has compiled a record of 34-101-5 in conference games. Little Rock's best conference season came in 2007 when it went 5-5-1 against Sun Belt foes. The Trojans have never finished a conference schedule above .500. Little Rock has finished eighth in the Sun Belt for the last two seasons.
 
SMALL WINS CONFERENCE AWARD AGAIN
Junior goalie Sara Small came up big on Sunday, making eight saves to keep the Texas attack off the scoreboard for all 110 minutes of the 0-0 tie. For that excellence, she was named the SBC Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week for the second time this season. Small's shutout was her second complete clean sheet this season, as she also made 13 saves against Ole Miss on Sept. 6 while shutting out the Rebels during the regulation 90 minutes.
 
Small becomes the first Trojan to ever win two weekly conference awards in one season and just the second Trojan to ever claim two weekly awards in her career (Grace Rich). This is also the first time in Little Rock history that players have earned two weekly awards in the same year.
 
IRON WOMEN
Besides Small's stellar performance in goal on Sunday, the Trojans had six other players who saw all 110 minutes of action at Texas. The back line of Bailey Fithian, Nora Hellmers and Hali Long played every second of the game in blistering heat, as did midfielders Caitlyn Eddy, Claire Palmer and Mikayla Uyokpeyi. Long currently leads the team in minutes played, seeing 859 minutes out of 925 played (92.8 percent).
 
STRANGE GETS START
Logan Strange got her first career start at Texas on Sunday, and the freshman made the most of it. Playing in a wingback position, Strange saw 85 minutes of action in the first two halves before coming out. She was part of a huge effort to clear away balls from danger throughout Texas' offensive chances.
 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
For the second consecutive year, Little Rock enters league play with an above-.500 record in non-conference play. Last year's Trojans were 9-0 before facing Appalachian State to begin the league slate, and this year's team holds a 5-4-1 record before facing Texas State on Friday. Before 2014, the team had not posted a winning non-conference record since 2007. This also marks the first time in program history that the team has back-to-back winning non-conference years.
 
SUN BELT STAT RANKINGS
With conference play beginning, the Trojans compare well with other teams in the league. Through last weekend's games, Little Rock is second in the league with 152 shots, fourth with 45 saves and fifth with 42 corner kicks.
 
On the individual side, Fali Garuba is fourth in the league with 30 shots, Caitlyn Eddy is tied for second with four assists, Sara Small is tied for the league lead with 39 saves and tied for fourth with two shutouts.
 
BALANCED ATTACK
Little Rock's offensive attack has been highly balanced so far this year, as eight different players have recorded goals for the Trojans. The same can be said of the assist numbers, as nine different players have at least one assist this year. All told, 14 different players have at least one point this season, and that total is more than half of the field players who have seen action in 2015.
 
THIRD GOAL'S THE CHARM
Little Rock picked up three goals in its win against MVSU on Sept. 17, and all three goals were scored by players who had two goals on the season entering the game. That means each player's goal on Thursday night was her third goal of the season and resulted in the Trojans' 3-1 win.
 
ROUND NUMBERS REACHED
The Trojans had three players achieve career milestones at MVSU. Mikayla Uyokpeyi picked up her 10th career assist on Quin Wilkes' game-winning goal, moving her to ninth all-time in Trojan history. Wilkes, for her part, scored her 20th career point. And Fali Garuba reached the 30-point mark with her first-half goal.
 
OUT-ASSITING THE OPPOSITION
Through 10 games, Little Rock has held its opponents to only five total assists this year. Despite opponents scoring a total of 11 goals, only five of those goals were assisted. For comparison, Little Rock's 17 goals have seen a total of 16 assists.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Texas:

• Quin Wilkes played her 1,500th career minute.
• Fali Garuba took her 70th shot.
• Logan Strange got her first career start.

Coming soon:

• Shannon Shields is one point away from 10 in her Trojan career.
• Sara Cavanagh is two saves away from 60.
• Quin Wilkes one more goal for 10.
• Fali Garuba will reach 2,000 career minutes with three more minutes played.
   

UP NEXT
After a four-game road trip, Little Rock returns home next weekend. The Trojans will host their second Trojan Tailgate on Friday, Oct. 2, when they take on Georgia Southern at 7 p.m. Georgia State is in the city for a game on Oct. 4 at 1 p.m.