MSU Women’s Soccer This Week
 
THIS WEEK... Midwestern State competes in the UCO Fischer Classic Friday and Sunday at Tom Thompson Field in Edmond, Okla. The Mustangs open play with No.15 Central Oklahoma Friday at 4 p.m. before closing the weekend against Southwestern Oklahoma Sunday at noon.
 
SCOUTING THE FISCHER CLASSIC FIELD...
 
CENTRAL OKLAHOMA (Friday/4 p.m.)  No Live Stats | No Streaming Video
The Bronchos (2-0) extended their regular season winning streak to 15 games by taking results of 3-1 over St. Mary’s (Texas) and 2-0 over Texas A&M International last weekend in San Antonio. The 2011 NCAA II South Central Region qualifiers haven’t suffered a regular season loss since opening the 2011 campaign with setbacks to NCAA Division I Nebraska-Omaha, Truman State and Abilene Christian. MSU’s former Lone Star Conference rival is loaded with familiar names as senior forward Brittni Walker, senior midfielder Stephanie Fleig, senior midfielder Summer Grantham, freshman midfielder Ciara Mitchell and sophomore forward Kate Foran have all tallied goals this season. Senior Meagan Burke, a transfer from Wyoming, has permitted one goal in just over 167 minutes this season.
All-Time Series: Central Oklahoma leads the series, 14-5.
Coach Jeff Trimble on the Bronchos: “UCO is what they normally are. They are different than a lot of teams we play in that they man mark. That suits us pretty well right now with our team speed up top. We now they have a very dynamic goalkeeper which is something they haven’t had. That’s going to add a lot of layers to their team as far as being able to counteract some of the mistakes they may make. They have good team speed and they are in a different system where they play the ball through the midfield a little more. We think our new system should be able to help us out with that.”
 
SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA (Sunday/Noon)  No Live Stats | No Streaming Video
The Bulldogs (2-0) opened the season with impressive results taking a 2-0 win over Missouri Western and a 2-1 victory over Emporia State (Kan.) last weekend in the Drury Inn Classic in St. Joseph, Mo. Four different players tallied goals for SWOSU including junior midfielder Jessica Carbonera, junior defender Natalie Crosslin, junior midfielder Paige Doherty and sophomore forward Samantha Nunez. Crosslin is also the reigning Great American Conference Defensive Player of the Week while senior goalkeeper Corey LaMoureaux has let in just one goal in 180 minutes for the Bulldogs.
All-Time Series: Midwestern State leads the series, 13-0.
Coach Jeff Trimble on the Bulldogs: “They are a good team and they are well coached. The big thing about this weekend is the contrasting styles of a 3-5-2 with UCO. I’m hearing SWOSU is playing a 4-3-3 and more direct on top of us. They won’t play to feet like UCO does. The ability for us to adjust is important, but we are going to do what we are going to do and make some people adjust to us. We’ve got to get to that point. SWOSU is much, much improved from the years historically in the past so it’s going to be a tough game.”
 
A LOOK BACK... Midwestern State suffered defeats in its opening two matches for the first time since 2008 taking setbacks of 3-0 to No. 10 Fort Lewis (Colo.) and 3-1 to Colorado Mesa last weekend at the MSU Classic in Wichita Falls. Both teams advanced to NCAA II postseason play in 2011.
Coach Jeff Trimble said: “Last week, we learned what kind of team we are. Not meaning how hard we will work, but we learned basically what kind of a system we need to run, where our framework is and how we need to play. We should have known that before you would think but you can’t really replicate that. Once you get into a really competitive game. That’s why I like playing the tougher teams first because you want to be that. There’s nothing wrong with being someone you beat 3-0 but there’s certainly an advantage to wanting to be someone that’s in the top 10 in the nation. They exposed our weaknesses and we were able to change some things. I thought we took a step forward on  Sunday (against Colorado Mesa). We learned a lot as a team. I think the young players learned a lot. Sometimes lessons are learned through failure before you can experience success.”
 
NOTEWORTHY 

• MSU's 3-0 loss to No. 10 Fort Lewis (Colo.) snapped a string of three consecutive wins in season openers as the Mustangs to 11-7 all time in campaign starters.
• Midwestern dropped to 5-2 all time in season openers played at the MSU Soccer Field.
• The Mustangs managed just three shots in Friday's 3-0 loss to Fort Lewis which are the fewest since they were stated for just two total shots against West Texas A&M on Sep. 23, 2010.
• Freshman Kaila Maxey tallied her first collegiate goal in the first half Sunday against Colorado Mesa on an assist from fellow freshman Kensli Pounds, who was playing in her first collegiate match.