Two Road Games For 11th Ranked Cougar Women Finish Off 2000 Regular Season

After clinching its first regular season MWC title with wins over Air Force and Wyoming, the 11th ranked BYU women's soccer team is back on the road with games against Minnesota and Arizona. The Cougars play the Golden Gophers in Tempe on Oct. 27 and Arizona in Tucson on Oct. 28. Kick off for both games is set for 7 p.m.

Last Week Recap

• BYU took to the road for its final two conference games, picking up a 4-0 shutout over Air Force and a 4-1 victory against Wyoming, clinching the MWC regular season crown.

•Balanced scoring continued to be the winning combination for the Cougars as seven different players picked up points in the two conference games.

•Michelle Peterson and Aleisha Cramer led the BYU effort with a goal and an assist a piece in each game. Other scores came from Sara Reading, Lydia Ojuka, Sarah Higham, Jeni Willardson and Janet Jensen.

•The Cougars tallied 47 shots and 13 corner kicks in the two games.

Cougars Picked To Repeat as MWC Champions

BYU was selected as the favorite to capture its second straight conference title in a vote by the league's coaches.

Place Team (1st place votes) Points

1. BYU (5) 35

2. Utah (1) 31

3. San Diego State (1) 27

4. Air Force 21

5. New Mexico 14

6. UNLV 13

7. Wyoming 6

BYU In The Polls

• 10th in Soccer Times (as of 10/23/00)

• 11th in Soccer America (as of 10/23/00)

• 13th in NSCAA Coaches (as of 10/23/00)

2000 Season Highlights

• Record:14-3-1, 6-0-0

• Senior midfielder Michelle Peterson continues as the teams' leading scorer with 14 goals and nine assists for her 37 points.

• Kim Lowe leads the team in the assist category with 13 from the season. She's also second on the leader board in scoring with 27 points from seven goals and her 13 assists.

• The Cougars are currently on an eight-game winning streak and one tie since Sept. 28

• BYU finished their home season undefeated in 2000 with a 7-0-1 record at South Field, their second consecutive unbeaten year.

• Head Coach Jennifer Rockwood picked up her 100th win in the 2-0 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sept. 23.

• The team netted its second score off a corner kick in the 5-2 victory over Utah on Oct. 7. BYU averages 7.0 corner kicks a game.

• Freshman All-America Aleisha Cramer tallied her first collegiate goal for the Cougars, a minute and a half into the Weber State game. In that game, she picked up two goals and an assist. Currently Cramer has two goals and five assist for her nine points from 24 shots.

• Jennifer Waldron, BYU's junior goalkeeper picked up her first solo shutout in 2000 with the 2-0 win over Florida in Gainesville on Sept. 18.

• Sophomore goalie Kylee Dickson got her second start against UWM, recording her second shutout of the year. Her first was against Washington State on Sept. 4, a 3-0 win for the Cougars.

BYU Returning Starters To Watch - 2000 Stats

• 13 Michelle Jensen Peterson - MF/F, Sr (14G, 9A, 37PTS, 52SH)

• 15 Kim Lowe - MF, Sr (7G, 13A, 27PTS, 54SH)

• 12 Sara Reading - F/MF, Sr (10G, 3A, 23PTS, 75SH)

• 04 Natalyn Lewis - MF, Sr (5G, 4A, 14PTS, 46SH)

BYU Newcomers To Watch - 2000 Stats

• 17 Aleisha Cramer - MF, Fr (6G, 9A, 21PTS, 47SH)

• 14 Annie Hoecherl - 5-10 D, Fr (Played in 16 games, has one goal for her two points to date)

Cougar 2000 Quickie Stats(Conf)

• Averaging 26.0 (26.5) shots on goal per game

• Averaging 3.4 (4.3)goals per game

• Average 3.5 (4.16) assists per game

Minnesota Notes

Minnesota has compiled an 8-8, 5-5 record to date with their most recent win a 2-1 overtime victory against Northwestern. Senior forward Laurie Seidl leads the Golden Gophers in scoring with six goals and two assists for her 14 points. Teammate Alison Rackley is the team's assist leader with four on the season. Minnesota is averaging 18.4 shots on goal to their 1.18 goals per game.

Series Against Minnesota

Record:0-0 first meeting between the Golden Gophers and the Cougars.

University of Arizona Notes

The Wildcats currently have a 3-11-2, 0-5-1 record in 2000. They have eight starters back this year. Arizona is a member of the Pacific-10. Their three wins have been over New Mexico, Long Island and Northern Arizona and currently post a five-game losing streak. Freshman Liz Bartlett leads the team in scoring with nine points from four goals and one assist. Kristi Lorona, a junior forward follows with eight points from four goals. Arizona is averaging 10.8 shots and 1.0 goals per game.

Series Against Arizona

The Record: 2-0 in favor of BYU. Last year, the squads met in Provo with the Cougars getting the 3-1 win over the Wildcats.

Coach Jennifer Rockwood Quotes

(On the Cougars) We reached one of our goals this past weekend by picking up the MWC regular season crown. We had two good games, although we struggled a bit. It's always hard to play on the road especially when you play two very physical games. Now we still have two more road games to play against very tough opponents so we 'll have to remain focused and ready to play.

(On Minnesota and Arizona)These are going to be two very tough games with two very tough programs who play a lot of soccer and have tough conference schedules. Again, it's all up to us to come out ready to play our best soccer, and our style of play if we want to pick up these two road wins.

Cougars Travel/Road Practice

While in Tempe, the team will be staying at the Tempe Hampton Inn at 480-675-9799, 480-675-9879 fax. And in Tucson, the Cougar team plans on staying at the Fairfield Inn, 520-747-7474, 520-747-5468 fax. On Friday, they will practice at 9:30 a.m. for their game against Minnesota. Saturday in Tucson the team's practice time is also at 9:30 a.m.

Up Next For The Cougars

BYU travels to Las Vegas to defend its MWC Championship title, Nov. 1-4 on the UNLV campus. The Cougar are the number one seed in the tournament. The official tournament bracket will be announced Wednesday night, Oct. 25 after the Air Force @ Wyoming game.