FORT MYERS, Fla. – With a surge of confidence from exhibition play, the FGCU women's soccer team will open the 2015 season with two home games this weekend. The Eagles will begin the year with Ole Miss on Friday, Aug. 21 with a 7 p.m. kickoff at the FGCU Soccer Complex and will continue action Sunday, Aug. 23 in a 1 p.m. start against Dayton.
Fans are encouraged to wear blue to the season opener, where all fans will receive a free schedule magnet.
A year ago, FGCU put together a record-breaking season, winning a program best 17 games, a fifth-consecutive Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championship, a third A-Sun Tournament title and hosted the first NCAA Tournament match in the history of FGCU Athletics which produced a record-shattering attendance of 2,014 fans. After dropping a 2-0 result to No. 16 South Carolina on Sept. 14 on a neutral field, the Eagles won a program record 13-consecutive matches, outscoring their opponents 36-6 with seven shutouts, including a 15-2 advantage against A-Sun competition during the regular season. The Eagles enter the 2015 campaign with a record of 7-0-1 all-time in the A-Sun Tournament and a mark of 3-0-1 in the Championship match. The season also saw a national top-25 ranking and eight A-Sun award winners, including Player of the Year in
Tabby Tindell (Ocala, Fla./Trinity Catholic High School), Defensive Player of the Year in
Emma Blackwell (Jenks, Okla./Jenks High School) and six First-Team award winners.
This season, the team enters with a core group of returners and an impressive class of newcomers including transfers
Meaghan Mulligan (Freehold, N.J./Colts Neck High School/Tennessee) and
Nikki Hudson (Baltimore, Md./Roland Part County School/Rutgers).
HOW TO FOLLOWLive stats will be available via StatBroadcast and can be viewed by clicking
here. A free video stream will be available through ASun.TV. Fans can access the link by visiting AtlanticSun.org and clicking live video from the top menu. A direct link to the broadcast will be available Friday morning on the women's soccer schedule on FGCUAthletics.com and can be found on social media. Fans can also follow @FGCU_WSoccer on Twitter for live updates.
OLE MISSThe University of Mississippi women's soccer program travels to Southwest Florida to begin its sixth season under head coach Matthew Mott. Ole Miss went 8-6-5 a year ago with a 3-4-4 mark in Southeast Conference play and ended the year with an official RPI of 68. The squad finished 11th in the powerhouse league and was selected to finish 10th in this year's preseason coaches' poll, ahead of LSU, Alabama, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. The University of Florida earned the top position in the poll with 11 first-place votes.
The Rebels return 10 starters from last year's team, having lost only goal keeper Kelly McCormick and retaining all players who contributed to the team's 77 points. Current junior Addie Forbus led the Rebels last season with seven goals and four assists, while senior Olivia Harrison also added seven goals and recorded one assist in 19 games. As a unit, the Rebels outscored opponents 30-27 and produced 115 shots on goal.
Friday marks the first meeting between the two teams.
DAYTONThe University of Dayton will begin the 2015 slate Friday in Miami as the team faces FIU at 7 p.m. The Flyers finished the 2014 season with a record of 12-9-2 with a 5-2-1 mark in Atlantic 10 play and were voted as the preseason favorite for the seventh-consecutive season. The team earned the A-10 tournament championship with a win over LaSalle in the A-10 final but fell to Virginia Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Following the 2014 season, the Flyers held an official RPI of 63.
Under the direction of long-time head coach Mike Tucker, the Flyers return a strong group of veterans, including five Preseason All-Conference honorees. The roster is led by leading scorers Ashley Campbell and Nicole Waters, both of whom were named First Team All-A-10 a year ago. Campbell produced 16 goals and six assists in 2014, while Waters added eight goals and 18 assists to rank fourth in the nation. The duo also earned a position among TopDrawerSoccer's Top-100 Players with Campbell ranked at no. 35 and Waters at no. 55. As a team, Dayton outscored its opponents 45-42 last season and produced 172 shots on goal.
Sunday will be the program's first-ever meeting with the Flyers.
PRESEASON EXPECTATIONSAs the winners of five-straight Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championships, the FGCU women's soccer team was selected to add a sixth-straight as the preseason favorite. In addition to the preseason standing, the Eagles picked up all three major awards as voted on by the league's head coaches.
For the second-consecutive season, Tindell, Blackwell and
Brittany Brown (Rochester, N.Y./Greece-Athena High School) earned the league's major preseason awards as they were voted Preseason Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year, respectively. Tindell and Blackwell earned the honors unanimously after being named the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year following the 2014 season.
In addition to their individual awards, Tindell, Blackwell and Brown were named to the Preseason All-Conference Team alongside teammates
Ally Kasun (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield High School) and
Paulina Speckmaier (Miami, Fla./Gulliver Prep) to give the Eagles five players on the 12-person team. All five players earned the honor for the second-consecutive season this year.
To complement the A-Sun honors, Tindell and Kasun also earned positions among TopDrawerSoccer's Preseason Top-100 Player Rankings. Tindell stands as no. 45 on the list, while Kasun checks in at no. 90.
TABBY'S RECORD BOOKTindell is on the launching pad to become FGCU's most prolific women's soccer player of all time. The junior currently holds the all-time record in goals (35), game-winning goals (15) and shots on goal (84) and holds single season records in points (48) and goals (20). Tindell sits just one point behind all-time leader
Shannen Wacker '15 with 82 career points through two complete seasons.
EXHIBITION PLAYIn a span of just three days, the FGCU women's soccer program defeated two in-state, nationally-ranked programs in exhibition play. As part of preseason play, the Eagles defeated no. 17 UCF 2-1 on Aug. 13 in Orlando and followed with a 1-0 victory over no. 8 Florida Aug. 15 in Gainesville.
The Eagles had 24 players take the field in both games and saw strong production from the starting lineup and off the bench. Tindell netted the team's first goal of the 2015 season, while Mulligan added to the final score at UCF. In Saturday's contest, junior
Paige Law (Sanibel Island, Fla./Bishop Verot High School) entered off the bench to score the game's only goal.
UCF and UF have both received national praise to start the year, including in the NSCAA preseason rankings and held top-20 RPIs following the 2014 season. UCF stood at 17 in the RPI, while the Gators were among the top-10 at number 7. FGCU finished the season at number 33 in the NCAA's official RPI.
COACH BLANKENSHIPFor the second-straight year, FGCU women's soccer head coach
Jim Blankenship earned a position among the nation's top-10 collegiate coaches. The three-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year holds the No. 6 position in the list compiled by AllWhiteKit.com for 2015. By creating sustained success at FGCU, Blankenship achieved a score of 69.61 in 2014 for a No. 10 ranking and improved to 74.05 this season to take the No. 6 spot. With the increase, Blankenship moved ahead of UNC's Anson Dorrance, Boston University's Nancy Feldman, Marquette's Markus Roeders, Penn State's Erica Walsh, Portland's Garrett Smith and Florida's Becky Burleigh.
Entering his ninth season with the Green and Blue, Blankenship has built FGCU into a yearly contender in the A-Sun and nationally. Blankenship-led squads have won each of the last five regular season championships and have captured the A-Sun Conference Championship in three of the last five seasons. With Blankenship at the helm, the Eagles have compiled a record of 101-36-17 through eight seasons with a 53-9-11 A-Sun mark. FGCU's only women's soccer coach in program history owns a career record of 341-107-28.
UP NEXTFollowing the weekend at home, the team will travel north to take on Mississippi State and LIU Brooklyn in neutral matches next weekend. As part of the USF Soccer Classic, the Eagles will face Mississippi State Friday, Aug. 28 at 2:30 p.m. in Tampa and will follow with a 1 p.m. against the Blackbirds on Sunday, Aug. 30.
COACH JIM BLANKENSHIPA veteran of over two decades in collegiate coaching, head coach Jim Blankenship, who was named the 2012 and 2013 A-Sun Coach of the Year as well, has built FGCU women's soccer into a yearly contender in the Atlantic Sun Conference and a rising program in the South Region in just eight seasons. Blankenship, who was recently ranked the no. 6 collegiate coach nationally by AllWhiteKit.com, started the program in 2007 and has since guided the Eagles to eight double-digit win seasons, culminating with Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championships in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2011 and 2012 he also led the Eagles to back-to-back A-Sun tournament championships and became the first team in the history of the university to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles then won the 2014 A-Sun tournament and hosted the first NCAA Championship event on campus when it welcomed Auburn in front of a record crowd. Blankenship has guided FGCU to a 101-36-17 overall record over the first eight seasons of the program's existence, including a 54-9-9 mark in the A-Sun. Blankenship's impressive career record of 341-107-28 over 24 seasons has come while leading FGCU, University of Miami, Lynn University and St. Thomas University. FOLLOW ALONGFor constant, news, photos, videos and updates you can follow the women's soccer team on Twitter @FGCU_WSoccer, on Instagram @FGCU_WSoccer or on Facebook: Facebook.com/FGCUWSoccer. You can also find FGCU athletics on YouTube by visiting YouTube.com/FGCUEagles. TICKETSSingle-game tickets for FGCU Women's Soccer are available at a cost of $6 for adults and $3 for groups of ten (10) or more. Season tickets are also available. For more ticket information and additional deals, visit FGCUathletics.com/tickets, call or visit the ticket office at 239-590-7145. #FEEDFGCUFGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
