OXFORD, Ohio – A pair of stiff tests awaits the Miami soccer team for its first weekend of regular season play.
The RedHawks travel to Bloomington, Ind., squaring off with Big Ten foes Northwestern and Indiana on Friday (4:30 p.m.) and Sunday (3 p.m.), respectively.
Miami split its exhibitions last week, topping Eastern Kentucky 1-0 while falling, 3-1, to Northern Kentucky. The Red & White return five starters from last season's squad while breaking in 13 freshmen under first-year head coach
Courtney Sirmans. Among the returners are senior goalkeeper
Patricia Koutoulas, who earned Second-Team All-Mid-American Conference accolades last year, along with junior defender
Reagan Fleck, a MAC All-Freshman selection in 2016. Also back in the mix are senior defender
Tori Christiansen, junior defender
Lydia Brosnahan and junior midfielder
Olivia Winnett, who led the team in scoring a year ago.
Northwestern also split its two exhibition contests, outlasting Loyola, 1-0, while dropping a 3-1 decision to DePaul. The Wildcats were pegged to finish fourth in the Big Ten this season after finishing runner-up in the conference while reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament amidst a 12-8-3 2017 campaign. NU had three players on the Big Ten Preseason Honors List in Marissa Viggiano, Kayla Sharples and Hannah Davidson.
Indiana went 6-9-4 with a 2-6-3 Big Ten record a year ago. The Hoosiers were picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten this time around while Mykayla Brown, Maya Piper and Chandra Davidson each landed on the Big Ten Preseason Honors List.
Live stats will be provided for the entire weekend while Sunday's tilt with the Hoosiers will have a video stream (subscription required) available on BTN Plus.
Free Kicks
All-Time Series: Miami has faced Northwestern and Indiana twice in program history and holds an 0-2 record against both teams.
Fresh Faces: A lot of fresh faces are dotting the Miami soccer roster as 13 of its 27 players are freshmen and collectively there are just seven combined juniors and seniors. The RedHawks' success this season will likely hinge on adapting the bulk of the newcomers to the college game.
Search for Scoring: Offense has been hard to come by for the Red & White the last few seasons and last year saw them score just nine goals in their 18 contests, six fewer than their previous low mark for a season. A good amount of the freshmen were brought in to address the team's attack as it looks to reverse a trend of being unable to find the net.
Miami scoring by season (per match; record)
2012: 60 (2.50; 20-3-1)
2013: 36 (1.71; 11-6-4)
2014: 31 (1.63; 14-3-2)
2015: 21 (1.00; 11-8-2)
2016: 15 (0.79; 8-9-2)
2017: 9 (0.50; 2-15-1)
