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University of Houston Athletics
Houston Soccer Announces 2003 Schedule
2/24/2003 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Feb. 24, 2003
In perhaps the toughest schedule of its five-year existence, the University of Houston women's soccer team, which signed eight new faces to its squad earlier this month, kicks off the 2003 regular season against North Texas on August 29 at the Baylor Tournament in Waco, Texas, it was announced today by head coach Bill Solberg and his staff.
Highlighting Houston's demanding 2003 schedule is match-ups against Big 12 rival Baylor, SMU, Marquette, Georgia and South Carolina - all of which have been recently ranked among the top programs in the nation -- before equally tough competition in conference play, which begins on Sept. 19 at DePaul.
"We want to break into the Top 25 in the nation, and in order to do that, we have to play teams that are ranked in the Top 25," began Solberg, who enters his fourth year at the helm of the Cougar program. "We feel that we have done that with our schedule this year. And if we can come up with some big results, we feel we can accomplish our goals."
Following the Baylor Tournament, which also will see Houston play Eastern Washington on Aug. 31, the Cougars play the first of 10 home games at Robertson Stadium slated for 2003 against the visiting Baylor Bears on Sept. 5 and close out the weekend against top-ranked SMU on Sept. 7.
Houston then plays three more non-conference matches before beginning its Conference USA schedule in mid September, with four of its first six league games at home. After opening league action on the road at DePaul on Sept. 19 and Top 20 Marquette Sept. 21, the Cougars return to Robertson Stadium to open a four-game home stretch against Saint Louis (Sept. 26), East Carolina (Sept. 28), TCU (Oct. 10) and Memphis (Oct. 12). During this stretch Houston travels across town to play at Rice on Oct. 3.
The Cougars then take another weekend road swing at UAB (Oct. 17) and South Florida (Oct. 19) before their home finale on Oct. 24 against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Houston closes out the regular season against Tulane in New Orleans on Oct. 26.
Last season, the Cougars posted an 8-8-3 overall record, including 4-3-3 in Conference USA play, and advanced to the C-USA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year. Graduated senior Ashley Fortenberry, junior Alison Sinclair and sophomore Nikki Hawkins were named to All-C-USA Second Team, while freshman Kelly Golden was named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. This year's squad returns 10 of 11 starters from a year ago.
