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Weekly MWC Women's Soccer Release #1
BYU moves up to 11th in latest rankings.
Sept. 8, 1999 Player of The Week: Brigham Young junior midfielder, Natalyn Lewis, scored two goals in each of BYU's wins over No. 20 Northwestern and Montana at the Montana Soccer Showdown in Missoula, Mont. Lewis, of Idaho Fall, Idaho (Skyline High School), scored the first goal in the match vs. Northwestern at the 14:40 mark of the first half and added her second goal at the 61:16 mark to put BYU up 6-0. The Cougars went on to win the match 8-1. Against Montana, Lewis opened the Cougar scoring with a goal in the eighth minute, giving BYU a 1-0 lead. She struck again in the 29th minute to put BYU ahead 3-1 going into the half. Montana pulled with one goal in the second half, but the Cougars held on to win 3-2. National Rankings: After starting the season 2-0, (Sept. 6 win over Montana not included) Brigham Young has moved up to 11th from 14th in the NSCAA National Rankings receiving 120 votes this week. In the Soccer America Top 20 poll, BYU moved up to 15th from its No. 20 spot a week ago. San Diego State (3-1) dropped out of the NSCAA poll this week from its No. 13 spot in the preseason poll after the 1-0 overtime loss to No. 9 California on the road. The Aztecs also dropped in the Soccer America poll from 12th to 17th this week.
Two Remain Undefeated: BYU and UNLV are the two lone Mountain West Conference schools still undefeated after the first two weeks of the season. The Cougars are 3-0 and will host Wisconsin-Madison, Cal Poly-SLO and Arizona this week. The Rebels are currently 2-0 after having their match with Sacramento State on September 5 cancelled and will put their winning streak on the line this week as they travel to Michigan State and Western Michigan. All-Tournament Honors: Three Mountain West Conference athletes garnered all-tournament honors this past week. Air Force junior goalie Kristy Kulhman was named Defensive MVP of the Falcon Invitational after recording 29 total saves in two matches. San Diego State placed two athletes on the all-tournament team at the Cal Invitational in Berkeley, Calif., in senior forward, Lori LaCoursiere and sophomore defender Fay deLeon. Tournament Talk: New Mexico (1-3) will be the lone Mountain West Conference representative in a tournament this week. The Lobos travel to El Paso, Texas for the Reebok Minor Desert Scramble. New Mexico will face Creighton on Fri., Sept. 10 at Noon and Texas Tech on Sun., Sept. 12 at 10:30 a.m. Scoring Spree: BYU tallied its second highest goal total in school history last week in a 8-1 victory over then-No. 20 Northwestern at the Montana Soccer Showdown Tournament in Missoula, Mont. Junior midfielder Natalyn Lewis and sophomore midfielder Sarah Higham, both notched two goals apiece. Senior All-American Maren Hendershot, junior Kim Lowe and freshmen Jeni Williardson and Rachelle Dixon also scored goals in the match. Besides Hendershot¹s goal, she also had three assists in the victory. SDSU Streak Snapped: The Aztecs 1-0 overtime loss at Cal this past Sunday, broke a seven match overtime winning streak dating back to October 24, 1996 when they dropped a 3-2 decision at BYU. SDSU had compiled a 5-0-2 mark in overtime contests before the loss at Cal. Offensive Power: Mountain West Conference teams have outscored their opponents thus far in the 1999 season 49-39. BYU leads the way with a 4.7 goals per game average followed by UNLV (3.0 gpg) and San Diego State (2.5 gpg). Two-Timers: Six Mountain West Conference athletes have scored twice in a single match in just the first two weeks of the 1999 season. BYU¹s Sarah Higham (So., MF) accomplished the feat against Northwestern and teammate Natalyn Lewis (Jr., MF) has done it twice vs. both Northwestern and Montana. Other MWC players with two goals in a single match this year include: New Mexico's Christina Williams (Fr., M) vs. UTEP, SDSU's Lori LaCoursiere (Sr., F) vs. UCSB, UNLV's Janae Sims (So., MF) vs. San Francisco and Utah's Staci Burt (Sr., F) vs. Idaho State. San Diego State Registers First MWC Win: On the first official day of competition as a member of the Mountain West Conference, the San Diego State women's soccer team captured the first victory by any team in any sport for the conference. The Aztces played UCSB in the first-ever sporting event in the Mountain West Conference on August 27, 1999 and won in style with a 5-1 win over the Gauchos. A list of Mountain West Conference milestones and women's soccer firsts will be updated weekly on the official website of the conference at www.mountainwestconf.com and is also available at the end of this release. MWC Schedule Opens Sept. 16: The first Mountain West Conference women's soccer match will feature Utah hosting New Mexico on Wednesday, October 6 at 4:00 p.m. (MT). Mountain West Conference Tournament: The inaugural Mountain West Conference Women's Soccer Championships will take place from Wednesday-Saturday, November 3-6 in San Diego, Calif. All seven teams will qualify for the tournament with the No. 1 seed receiving a first round bye. Change is Good: The old saying "change is good" doesn't always hold true but three MWC teams have changed their logos as they begin play in a new conference. The administrative and coaching staffs of three MWC institutions decided to make some changes in their logo, and one team undertook a major change and introduced its first major uniform change in 30 years. On August 16, BYU unveiled its new logo, colors and uniform. The change has received regional and national attention. Air Force and New Mexico changed their respective logos as well. Air Force introduced their logo last spring and New Mexico revealed its new logo to the media August 30th. The New Mexico women's soccer team was one of the first Mountain West Conference sports teams to compete and sported the new logo at its Aug. 27th game at Colorado College. Fax-on-Demand: For up-to-date information that can also be found on the web or via fax, call 1-800-300-2050. Enter your personal identification number (PIN). The passcode for the MWC is (692). If you do not have an account call Pivotal Communications at 770-399-0096.
MWC Main Directory 1000
School Information MediaTeamLink is another easy way to get updated information and is an Internet product that Media can use to automatically receive documents via email and/or fax as soon as they are updated by the media relations department or conference. Documents retrieved via email are in original format (including color and photos), have a searchable text option, and the ability to cut and paste to any other document. Media can select numerous documents from different schools and conferences one time, and then have them automatically delivered as the document is posted by the SID. Media interested in establishing an account should call Javan Hedlund at (719) 533-9511 or sign up at www.media teamlink.com.
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