SAN ANGELO – The No. 10-ranked Angelo State soccer team concludes a six-game home stand this weekend when it hosts Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas Woman's in a pair of Lone Star Conference contests at the ASU Soccer Complex.

The Rambelles (7-0-1, 0-0-1 LSC) start the weekend off with a 7 p.m. game against the Lions (6-3, 1-1 LSC) on Friday before taking on TWU (7-2, 1-1 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Sunday. ASU enters the weekend having outscored its opponents 31-3 this season and has not allowed an opponent to score in the last 466 minutes of play going back to a fourth minute goal by Colorado Mesa in a game the Rambelles earned a 4-1 win in.

ASU is 5-0-1 at home this season is in the national top-10 for the first time in program history with their best start in program history. The Lions and Pioneers each split their LSC openers last weekend, while the Rambelles played to a scoreless draw against Midwestern State in their only LSC game to date. A&M-Commerce opened its conference slate with a 3-1 win over Eastern New Mexico before falling 0-1 to West Texas A&M. TWU earned a 2-1 victory over WT in its LSC opener last Friday, but then dropped a 1-2 overtime decision to ENMU.

The Rambelles will be on a four-game road trip following this weekend with games at West Texas A&M (Friday, Oct. 10) and Eastern New Mexico (Sunday, Oct. 12) next weekend before starting the second half of LSC play with rematches against TWU (Friday, Oct. 17) and A&M-Commerce (Sunday, Oct. 19).
 
Quotes  ||  Travis McCorkle, Angelo State head coach
On the strengths of the Angelo State soccer team through the first eight games of the season:
"I think most of the things we're accomplishing right now starts with our defending. We are doing a great job of winning the ball from the other team to start our attack. Another strength we have going for ourselves right now is our bench. We are able to maintain a high level of play throughout the game because our bench is coming into the game ready to play and are doing a great job for us. It's a great thing we have going for ourselves right now."
 
On playing against A&M-Commerce and Texas Woman's this weekend:
"The primary focus for us this week is to play at a more consistent and higher level than we did. Commerce plays a unique style that we'll have to be ready for and Texas Woman's has had one of its best starts in program history. They are on fire right now. We'll have two very difficult games this weekend that we'll have to be ready for."

 

Rambelle Roster Report
Haley Mendel continues to lead the Rambelle offensive statistics with her seven goals and three assists. Mendel, a sophomore from Bastrop, is third in the conference in goals scored and has the third most assists in the LSC along with teammate Jenny Kotowych and Tiffany Dang. Mendel had a blistering start to the season with two goals in the season opener against Adams State and another in the second game against New Mexico Highlands. She would record ASU's lone hat trick of the season with a three-goal performance against Colorado Mesa and then added her seventh goal in a blowout win over Oklahoma Christian. Her offensive explosion comes after a freshman season where she took only seven shots and did not score a goal.

Loni Byers and Sierra Anderson are turning up their offensive production the past two weeks with both players at four goals on the season after they each scored goals in last Sunday's win over Texas-Permian Basin. Byers, a freshman from California, scored the first goal of her career against New Mexico Highlands and also scored two goals against OC. She also has two assists and is second on the team with 10 points behind Mendel's 17 points. Anderson, a junior from Wichita Falls, scored her first goal of the season in a 4-0 win over Fort Lewis and then had a two-goal performance in the 4-0 win over St. Mary's. Anderson has 13 career goals and is coming off a sophomore season where she was named to the LSC first-team. Kotowych is third on the team with three goals after she scored on an unassisted goal against UTPB last Sunday. Kotowych has eight career goals after scoring five goals last season as a freshman and is tied with Selena Alvarez for second on the team with 15 shots.

Two-goal scorers for the Rambelles are Elizabeth Rodriguez, Brianne Brown and Cynthia Andrews. A freshman from Arlington, Rodriguez scored the first goal of her career in the win over Fort Lewis on a penalty kick and then added her second in the lopsided win over Oklahoma Christian. Brown is one of three seniors on the team with Brittany Martinez and Caitlyn Conaway and scored her goals against FLC and St. Mary's, while Andrews found the back of the net against Adams State in the season opener and then again against OC.

The team has also received goals this season from Conaway, Callie Smith, Alvarez, Dang, Kathleen Keoughan, Martinez and central defender Ashley Exford. Along with Mendel, Dang and Kotowych's three assists, ASU has seen Brown, Byers, Keoughan and Martinez provide two assists this season.

A traditional strength for the Rambelle program, the 2014 defense has been electric as usual with Shantel Wittke and Natalie Nielsen being the leaders in goal. Wittke is 5-0-1 in goal this season and has recorded 27 saves in 544 minutes of play. She has four shutouts and a 0.50 goals against average as the ASU starting goalkeeper. Wittke recorded four saves in 110 minutes of play last Friday in the 0-0 draw against MSU in the conference opener. A sophomore captain, Nielsen has made the most of her two starts by producing two shutouts. Nielsen has made six saves in wins over Oklahoma Christian and UTPB and has a 0.00 goals against average.
 
TEXAS A&M-COMMERCE LIONS
NEXT MEETING: Sunday, Oct. 19 @ 1 p.m.  //  Commerce

Savannah Henderson leads the Lions and is second in the conference with eight goals this season and has also provided two assists. The LSC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year has 18 points on the season for A&M-Commerce, while teammate Jade Bell has four goals and leads the LSC with five assists through eight games played. Julia Hernandez has added two goals and Vicky Black has three assists. Courtney Northern has played all 822 minutes of the season in goal for the Lions and has made 56 saves for a .889 saves percentage. The Lions have wins over UC-Colorado Springs, St. Mary's, West Florida, Dallas Baptist, Ouachita Baptist and ENMU this season. Their biggest win outside of LSC play came in a 2-0 victory over then-No. 2 ranked West Florida.

The Rambelles swept the season series over Texas A&M-Commerce last season with a 1-0 win in Commerce before a 2-1 win in San Angelo. The second victory came with goals from Sierra Anderson and Maggie Schaffer and was the 100th career coaching victory for Travis McCorkle . Despite the two wins over the Lions, A&M-Commerce earned an at-large bid to the NCAA DII South Central Championship while the Rambelles did not. A&M-Commerce lost in the first round of the regional tournament 0-1 to St. Edward's in Durango, Colorado to see its season end with an 11-6-2 overall record and a 5-4-1 conference mark. The Lions were 7-3-0 at home and 4-1-1 on the road and finished in third place in the conference standings behind Angelo State and Midwestern State. A&M-Commerce, which is led by Neil Piper who is in his 15th season with the Lions, owns an 8-13-5 all-time advantage over the Rambelles coming into the 2014 season. 
 
TEXAS WOMAN'S PIONEERS
NEXT MEETING: Friday, Oct. 17 @ 7 p.m.  //  Denton

Natalia Diaz leads the Pioneers and the conference with nine goals in nine games played this season. Diaz has also added four assists to top the LSC with 22 points (2.44 points per game. Nancy Chavez has added four goals and four assists for TWU and goalkeeper Ariana Morrision has made 30 saves (.833 percentage) this season TWU has wins over Colorado Mesa, Harding, Ouachita Baptist, St. Edward's, Rogers State, WT and is coming off a 4-0 win over Oklahoma Christian on Tuesday.

The Rambelles split last season's series against TWU after the Pioneers took a 2-1 decision in Denton before ASU exploded for a 4-1 victory in San Angelo with Jenny Kotowych scoring three goals after Sierra Anderson opened the onslaught with a goal just four minutes into the game. ASU leads the all-time series over the Pioneers 10-6-1. TWU finished last season with a 5-11-2 record and missed out on the LSC tournament after going 2-7-1 in conference play. The Pioneers are led by Babak Abouzar who is in his second season as the team's head coach.
 
National Rankings
The Angelo State soccer team has entered the top-10 of the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division II Poll for the first time in program history after starting with a 7-0-1 record and outscoring its opponents 31-3 this season.
The Rambelles are in the poll for the third straight week after initially entering the polls at No. 14 and then jumping to No. 11 last Tuesday. Now at No. 10 in the nation, ASU trails only No. 4 Colorado School of Mines in terms of NCAA Division II South Central region teams in the poll. The College of Saint Rose remains the top ranked NCAA DII team in the nation with a 7-0-0 record and is followed by No. 2 Minnesota State-Mankato (8-0-0), No. 3 Grand Valley State (6-1-0) and No. 5 Columbus State (6-0-1). Midwestern State received two votes in the NSCAA polling.