LITTLE ROCK - The Little Rock soccer team will return home to the Coleman Sports Complex this Thursday night at 7:00 p.m., welcoming Arkansas State for the program's Breast Cancer Awareness Night.
The match will be held in memory of Dr. Donna Kelly, an associate professor in the Department of Speech Language Pathology and coordinator for the Communication Sciences and Disorders program who passed away Aug. 23 after a brief battle with cancer. In recognition of those fighting or who have fought breast cancer, the Trojans will be wearing pink socks and have created posters with names of loved ones to surround the field.
Fans can come cheer on Little Rock in person as long as attendees are abiding by social distancing guidelines, detailed here. Attendees are also encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness month.
Coach's Preview
The Little Rock Trojans (2-4, 2-2 Sun Belt) are now exactly halfway through their conference schedule, with just four games remaining in the regular season. The Trojans are coming off of a win at ULM this past Sunday and are looking to take that confidence and momentum into tomorrow' match.
"There's a couple of girls that got their first start and got more minutes," said head coach Mark Foster on last Sunday's game. "We have a lot of young girls that have big potential as players. Tomorrow will be another building block and another experience that they can go and enjoy and hopefully get something out of. We took a day off on Monday to recover, then yesterday there was a good energy and focus about training because this weekend we've got some big games. In training, everybody's ready and fighting for their spot and playing time."
"When you're playing a team as good as Arkansas State you have to respect your opponent," added Coach Foster. "Our best chance of having a good performance Thursday is focusing on us, focusing on the things we do well, and trying to do those to the best of our ability, and really that's for whoever we're playing. We know they're unbeaten and at the top of our division, but our mindset is still going to be that we're a good team and when we do the things we do well we're hard to beat."
A Glance at the Matchup
On Thursday night, Little Rock will be looking to shut down Arkansas State's perfect record. The Red Wolves (7-0, 6-0 Sun Belt) have put together a successful season thus far, but the Trojans have been arguably their toughest competition this year, only allowing one goal on Arkansas State's own pitch. No other school has brought that tight of a match to the Red Wolves in Jonesboro, so Little Rock is eager to have the home field advantage this time around.
"The league is very tight and sometimes the difference between getting the points is home field advantage," remarked Coach Foster. "Our pitch is a little bit bigger than theirs so hopefully our girls can use that space to play an attacking game, score some goals, and get the win that everybody wants."
Doro Greulich, Abril Lucio, and Morgan Smocovich have all netted goals for #LittleRocksTeam this season so far. Despite only playing 141 minutes, redshirt senior Greulich has a proven rocket that she has shown off during free kicks to collect her two team-leading goals. Lucio, a junior midfielder, has been a constant attacking force for the Trojans, and her hard work finally paid off in last weekend's match at ULM. Meanwhile, senior Smocovich has led the team both vocally and on the field, second only to sophomore Mari Young in shots and shots on goal.
Keep an eye out for Young as she continues to fight for her first goal of the season, but also pay attention to goalkeeper Saskia Wagner and senior defender Bergros Asgeirsdottir, key players in the back for the Trojans that have not missed a single minute yet this year.
For the latest information on Little Rock Soccer, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockSOC on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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