The week ahead... The four-time defending MIAA champion University of Central Missouri Jennies soccer team opens its 2014 season with a pair of home matches this week. The Jens' season opener is slated for Friday, September 5 with the Augustana College Vikings at 7 p.m. UCM will close out the weekend with a 1 p.m. match with the No. 8 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs on Sunday.
Central Missouri turned in a 14-4-2 record in 2013, capturing its sixth MIAA regular season title in the last seven years and clinching a birth in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season.
Six-time MIAA Coach of the Year
Lewis Theobald returns five starters from last year's squad, headlined by 2013 MIAA Freshman of the Year
Hannah Pyle.
In 20 games last season, Pyle finished with the second-most goals on the team with 10, while registering the third-most points with 20. Two of the other returning starters include two second-team All-MIAA selections from a year ago in junior
Nicole Pond and sophomore
Emily Eldridge. In her freshman season, Eldridge started all 20 games, scoring three goals, while adding three assists for nine points. Junior reserve
Julie Ireland, who led the Jens with 11 goals last season off the bench, was also a second-team All-MIAA selection in 2013.
Series History...Augustana College: Friday night's match will be the first meeting between the two programs.
Minnesota-Duluth: Sunday afternoon's game marks the first meeting between the two schools.
The Coaches...Brandon Barkus (Augustana College): A historic start to the 2013 season resulted in the Vikings going 10-8-1 in 2013. The 10 wins marked the third time in team history that Augustana soccer has won at least 10 games, all coming under Barkus' watch. The Vikings made the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/US Bank Tournament for the fourth time in school history, eventually losing 5-1 in the quarterfinals to Winona State.
The Vikings set several team records during the course of the year. Team records that were set included points in a season (113), assists (35), points per game (5.95) and assists per game (1.84). Augustana's 39 goals were second most in team history
Barkus earned a bachelor's degree in education from Benedictine in 1995, and a master's degree in education from Augustana in 2011.
Greg Cane (Minnesota-Duluth): Cane officially became the first head soccer coach in Bulldog history in 1994, and has paced the sideline for each of the team's 370 matches during the program's 20-year existence. During that time, the Duluth native has won at a .639 clip, piling up an overall record of 220-117-33.
After a debut season that produced a 2-4-1 overall record, UMD went on to post double-digit win totals every year from 1995-2003 under Cane. The Bulldogs joined the upstart NSIC in 1996 and have claimed the league crown five times (1997, 1998, 2001-03) as well as five conference tournament titles (1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, and 2009) in 14 seasons of NSIC competition
Cane lives in Duluth with his wife, Patti. They have one daughter, Amanda.
Head Coach Lewis Theobald Six-time MIAA Coach of the Year,
Lewis Theobald is in his eighth season as head coach at Central Missouri with a stunning 109-22-15 record, becoming the all-time winningest coach in Jennies soccer history during the 2012 season. He earned his 100th victory as head coach of the UCM program on September 27, 2013 at Washburn. He enters the 2014 season as the sixth-winningest active head coach in Division II women's soccer with a .798 winning percentage. He recorded more wins in his first three seasons than any other coach in school history. He was the first assistant at Division I Indiana State, where he was the lead recruiter before coming to UCM.
He is a 1999 graduate of the University of Kansas.
Scouting the week's competition...Augustana College: The Vikings are coming off a 10-8-1 record and a first round NSIC Tournament defeat to Winona State in 2013. They return seven starters from last year's group.
The offense is headlined by senior forward Annie Thoresen, who was recently tabbed as a "Player to Watch" in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. A season ago, Thoresen scored six goals on an offense that was ranked among the top four in most major offense categories in the conference.
Defensively, Augustana College returns two starting defenders in junior Carline Renner and senior Emily Hanneman. Renner started 14 games last season, tallying two assists in 1176 minutes of action. Hanneman started in all 18 games she appeared in, earning NSIC Defensive Player of the Week on September 16, 2013.
Between the pipes is senior goalkeeper Ashley Limmer, who started all 19 games in 2013, and amassed a 10-8-1 record. She recorded a career-best 86 saves and her three shutouts were tied for third-most in a single season in program history.
Minnesota-Duluth: The Bulldogs enter the 2014 campaign ranked No. 8 in the NSCAA/Continental Tire Poll. Minnesota-Duluth finished with a 17-5-1 record and a 12-3 mark in NSIC play last season. UMD returns nine starters from 2013, including the NSIC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year in senior forward Maureen Stormont. Last year, Stormont led the NSIC with 43 points and 18 goals, earning both NSCAA and Daktronics All-Central Region honors.
On the defensive end, four seniors return headlined by Megan Helberg, another player on the NSIC "Player to Watch" list.
At goalkeeper is redshirt junior Marissa Rosa, who tied the Bulldog single-season record with 17 wins and talled seven shutouts with a 0.94 GAA.
Theobald Starting at the Top...Jennies head coach
Lewis Theobald enters the 2014 season as the program's all-time wins leader with 109 and his .798 win percentage is also first in UCM's coaching records. Since his inaugural season as Jens head coach in 2007, Theobald has won double-digit games in seven-consecutive years - one more than Al Iantoro's six from 1997-02.
In search of 1-0...The Jennies look to start the season with their fourth 1-0 start in the past five seasons. The Jennies opened the 2013 season with a draw against Winona State. UCM has not lost a season opener since 2009 (1-0 loss at Abilene Christian).
Should the Jennies defeat Augustana College on Friday, Sept. 5, they will go for their fourth 2-0 start in the past five years.
New Faces Defending the Net...UCM is breaking in two new goalkeepers this season following the departures of
Jessica Grindstaff and
Morgan Hartzler.
Freshmen
Madison Boyken and
Ana Dilkes will be counted on to continue a strong line of net protectors that have yielded just 31 goals over the past two seasons - fewest in the MIAA over that span.
Tough Act to Follow...Last season, Central Missouri led the MIAA in shots (343), points (157), goals (61), goals per game (3.05), assists (35) and assists per game (1.75). UCM also finished tied for second with 18 goals allowed and third in goals against average (0.87).
Jennies Soccer (By the numbers)... 