The University of Akron Athletics
Women's Soccer Ties Duquesne In Final Exhibition
August 18 | Women's Soccer
PITTSBURGH - The University of Akron women's soccer team played Duquesne to a 1-1 tie on Tuesday in its final tune-up for the regular season, which gets underway on Sunday at 7 p.m. EDT at Lee Jackson Field when Wright State visits the UA campus.
The Zips rode a 1-0 lead into halftime, with a goal coming from the foot of sophomore Rachel Phillip off an assist from junior Jordan Baranowski.
"I was very please with today's effort," second-year Akron head coach Chris Pfau said. "We did a much better job defending as a team and are starting to get our rhythm in the attack. During the second half we made a lot of changes and rotated our 'keepers every 30 minutes and still played well."
UA, which returns 19 letterwinners and nine starters for 2009, finished 1-1 in preseason matches this year after a 2-1 decision with Oakland at home on Aug. 12.
"We had a chance to get a look at a lot of players in different roles today," Pfau said. "This was a great improvement from last week's match with Oakland and if we keep building like this on each game we will be ready for conference play."
Included in its list of returnees is league player-of-the-year candidate senior forward Britni Back. Back finished last season as the Zips' leader in points (20), goals (8) and shots (59). Those numbers ranked her among the top three in the MAC in each category.
Check back with GoZips.com later this week for a season preview question and answer feature with head coach Chris Pfau.
