Akron Travels To Youngstown State Before Hosting Xavier

Friday, September 6

Youngstown, OH

7 PM

University of Akron

Youngstown State

Akron Travels To Youngstown State Before Hosting Xavier

September 05 | Women's Soccer

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Akron at Youngstown State Gamenotes (PDF)

Akron (1-3-0) vs. Youngstown State (1-3-0)
Friday, Sept. 6
Youngstown, Ohio • Farmer's National Bank Field • 7:00 p.m.
Live Stats: GoZips.com
Watch: GoZips.com
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Akron vs. Xavier Gamenotes (PDF)

Akron (1-3-0) vs. Xavier (2-1-1)
Sunday, Sept. 8
Akron, Ohio • FirstEnergy Stadium • 1:00 p.m.
Live Stats: GoZips.com
Watch: GoZips.com

What's Ahead
The 2019 non-conference campaign rolls along into week three as the Zips prepare for a pair of contests this upcoming weekend. Akron is set to travel to Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 6, for a Friday night showdown versus Youngstown State at Farmers National Bank Field. The Zips return home to the friendly confines of FirstEnergy Stadium for an afternoon affair on Sunday, Sept. 8, as Akron hosts Xavier at 1 p.m.

Scouting the Penguins
After the first four games of the 2019 season, Youngstown State stands 1-3 heading into its contest with Akron on Friday night. The Penguins opened the new campaign with a victory against Fort Wayne (2-1), but has since fallen in three consecutive contests to St. Bonaventure (1-3), Marshall (0-3), and SEC opponent, Kentucky (0-3). When competing at home on Farmer's National Bank Field, the Penguins own a 1-1 record.

The YSU offense has tallied three goals on 30 shot attempts (0.75 g/match) in its first four contests. Leading the pack for the Penguins individually is Marcella Sizer with a team-high two goals and four points on just five shots. Sizer has registered a .400 shot percentage, an .800 shot on goal percentage, one game-winning goal, and one PK score. The Penguin's third goal of the season came off the foot of Addie Roman who has tallied four shots, all coming on goal.

In net, Zeeyana Jivraj and Kate McEachern have split duties for YSU. In two starts, Jivraj has picked up a 1-1 record, made 13 saves, and allowed four goals. McEachern has given up six goals and faced 15 shots in 180 minutes of action.

Scouting the Musketeers
Big East member, Xavier, has opened the 2019 season with a 2-1-1 record and a 1-1-0 mark when playing on the road. The Musketeers began the new campaign picking up back-to-back wins against Murray State (4-3, 2OT) and Bowling Green (2-1). Since then, XU played to a scoreless draw in double overtime versus Dayton and fell to Missouri, 2-3, again in double OT.

Four Musketeers have notched a goal for Xavier in 2019 to total eight on the season, including Samantha Dewey who has posted a team-best four goals on a team-high 14 shots and an efficient 12 shots on goal. Jackie Richards is the second-leading scorer for XU with a pair of goals while Gabrielle LoPresti and Emily Burton have each scored one goal each.

A pair of Musketeers have seen time in-between the pipes for XU, including Olivia Jenkins (1-1) and Toni Bizzaro (1-0-1. Bizarro has made a team-best 12 saves and allowed just three goals to post a 1.23 GAA, while Jenkins has made just two saves but allowed four goals.

Series History
Akron looks to continue its historic success on the field against Youngstown State on Sept. 6. In seven matches since 2001, the Zips own a 6-0-1 ledger against the Penguins. Akron has won two straight contests against YSU and last season defeated the Penguins, 6-0.

Akron and Xavier met for the first time on the pitch in program history in 2018. Akron will look for its first victory over the Musketeer's as XU defeated the Zips, 0-3.

Coaches
Youngstown State: Brian Shrum is in his second season as head coach of the Youngstown State women's soccer team. In year one, Shrum and the Penguins ended the 2018 season at 1-13-4.

Xavier: Nate Lie, who is in his 3rd season at the helm of the Xavier women's soccer program, led XU to a historic 2018 season which included a 10-8-3 record, the first winning season since 2013, and a Big East semifinal appearance for the first time in school history. Lie owns an 18-16-7 overall record in his first two seasons.

Akron: Noreen Herlihy is in her fifth season on the sidelines as the head coach of The University of Akron's women's soccer program. She owns a 21-49-12 record leading the Zips since taking over the program. Since taking over the program in 2015, Herlihy has led Akron to the Mid-American Conference postseason tournament twice and advanced to the semi-final round for the first time in program history in 2015. Herlihy has coached seven All-MAC honorees, 25 student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-MAC team, and her team has been recognized as a Collegiate Team Academic Award winner by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) for four straight seasons.

Zips Tidbits

The Zips roster consists of seven players from Ohio, eight from Pennsylvania, one from Kentucky, two from Germany, two from England, one from Minnesota, and one from Ireland.
The Zips roster consists of one student-athlete who is a dual-citizen Kat Costa (Germany).
Lexie Kolano competed for The University of Cincinnati in her freshman season before transferring to Akron for a fresh start. Kolano scored one goal in 14 games for UC and four goals in her first season at Akron for a total of five collegiate goals scored.
The Zips return its starting defensive backline from 2018 including senior Ashley Amato (Pittsburgh, Pa.), junior Abigail Brown (Batavia, Ohio), junior Ryley Watt (Irwin, Pa.), and freshman Kayleigh Penton (Vermilion, Ohio). The quartet played a combined 6,774 minutes of action and aided in the Zips five shutouts.
Junior Anya Donelan (Warrington, England) competed at Monroe college for two seasons (2017-18), scored two goals and eight assists in her career. Donelan and Monroe College captured the 2018 National Junior College Athletic Association championship and went undefeated.
The six international student-athletes are the most on an Akron roster in program history.
Lucia Lobato and Aislinn Meaney are the first Irish student-athletes to compete on a Zips women's soccer squad in program history.
Seven Zips made their Akron debuts against Charlotte, including Aislinn Meaney, Vanessa Berlin, Lucia Lobato, Libby Harper, Anya Donelan, Bailee Bowers, and Emily Clopp.
Despite the two results, Akron registered 20 shots in its first two contests including nine shots on goal.
Redshirt sophomore Charley Kale scored her first career goal and the first goal of the season for the Zips against Cleveland State.
Freshman Lucia Lobato earned her first collegiate assist and registered the first assist of the season for the Zips in Akron's match with Cleveland State.
Despite the result, Akron outshot CSU, 15-9, and owned the advantage in corner kicks, 4-1.
Aislinn Meaney ranks second in the Mid-American Conference in total shots (15) and ninth in game-winning goals (1) and Amato ranks ninth in goals (2), while Libby Harper ranks fifth in GAA (.911) and ninth in saves (5, .714).
Akron picked up its first win of the 2019 campaign against Niagara while also earning its first victory over the Purple Eagles in program history.
Senior Ashley Amato has scored a goal in back-to-back contests against Niagara and Morehead State.
Meaney scored her first Akron goal and game-winning score against the Purple Eagles.
Junior Anya Donelan notched her first Akron assist in the Zips lone goal against MSU.

Team Effort
Through the Zips first two games, freshmen Libby Harper and Vanessa Berlin have split duties in between the pipes. Berlin has earned two starts, has tallied 180 minutes of work, made four saves, and allowed three goals. Harper entered the match in the second half and made two straight starts en route to 198 minutes of action, made five saves, and allowed two goals for a 0.91 goals-against average.

Senior Szn
Ashley Amato, the lone senior on the 2019 Akron women's soccer team, has made a large impact on the Zips program in her three seasons. The Pittsburgh native has competed in 51 games and made 47 starts over the course of three years. Amato has scored a minimum of three goals in each season, including a career-high five goals in 2017. Her 12 career goals rank sixth overall in program history in career goals scored and her 24 career points rank ninth in program history. In 2016, Amato was named to the All-MAC Freshman team while in 2018 earned an All-MAC Second Team selection.

2019 Preseason Prediction
The Mid-American Conference released its 2019 women's soccer preseason poll which predicted the Akron women's soccer team to finish ninth overall in the league standings.

Akron received 65 total points, including one first-place vote, which was voted on by the MAC's 12 head coaches prior to the start of the 2019 campaign.

Bowling Green was selected to repeat as the MAC regular-season champions in 2019 after receiving eight first-place votes, while also being predicted to claim the 2019 Mid-American Conference Tournament championship.

Rounding out the top three teams in the 2019 preseason poll were Ball State (126 votes) and Kent State (106 votes).

A Look Back at 2018
The 2018 Akron women's soccer team etched its name into the history books of the 18-year old program as just the fifth Zips team to qualify for the Mid-American Conference Tournament after one of the most exciting final stretches of a season winning four consecutive games and securing their spot in the postseason.

Akron finished the season with an 8-10-2 overall record while going 5-5-1 in league play. The Zips' eight wins in the 2018 season are the most wins since 2009 and their overall record ended as the fourth-best record in program history. The five MAC wins are also the most conference wins in a season since 2010. The 2018 Zips are one of just three teams to surpass five or more MAC wins in a single-season.

After struggling to find the back of the net over the course of the last two seasons, the Zips offense exploded in 2018 which played a large part in the team's success. After scoring just 14 goals in 2017, Akron nearly doubled its goal count one year later, 27, that came courtesy of 12 different Zips. The Zips 12 goal scorers were tied for the third-most individual goal scorers across the NCAA. Akron ended the season tied with Auburn, Florida State, Stanford, TCU, Texas A&M, and Virginia. Not only did the Zips have several players tally a goal on the year, but six student-athletes posted multi-goal seasons for the Akron offense.

The Akron offensive efforts were led by Worthy who turned in a spectacular rookie campaign upfront for the Zips. The freshman garnered a team-best six points and 14 points to go along with 27 shots, 18 shots on goal, one game-winning goal, and is just the fifth player in program history to tally a hat trick with three goals against Youngstown State.

The defensive backline made up of Amato, Brown, Penton, and Watt started a combined 76 games for the Zips out of a possible 80 matches totaling 6,774 minutes of play. The four defenders helped lead the defense to five shutouts and allowed just one goal or less for the opposition on 12 different occasions, despite some of the results. While holding down the back of the field, Amato and Watt also impacted the offensive third for the Zips scoring a combined 4 goals and registering two assists for 10 points. All four defenders notched 54 combined shots, respectively.

Up Next
Akron begins its final stretch of the 2019 non-conference schedule heading into week four of the season. The Zips are scheduled to play their next two matches at FirstEnergy Stadium as Akron entertains Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 15 and Robert Morris on Sept. 19.