University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Soccer Team Shows Promise In Exhibition
8/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Kenny Bybee, August 16, 2009, 5:51 p.m.
A new era of North Texas soccer began Saturday and while it may have been tough to gage just how good this team can be after one exhibition game, early indications showed that this will be yet another team that will be right there at the end fighting for a conference championship.
So what exactly can you take away from the 1-0 loss to TCU? First of all, one needs to know that this was a North Texas team that reported to camp earlier last week and had only three practices under their belt. That was evident in the first half of the game when the Horned Frogs looked a lot more comfortable spreading the ball around and attacking.
Undoubtedly the biggest storyline coming into this season was the influx of young talent that head coach John Hedlund brought to North Texas. Ten newcomers were added to the fold this fall and a couple of those players made a positive early impression Saturday evening.
Freshman forward Michelle Young missed out on a couple of great opportunities with two shots, one of which was on goal. The Poteet High School native showed great speed on the outside and looks to be another scoring threat alongside Kendall Juett, Kelsey Perlman and Kelli Lunsford.
The Mean Green defense looked strong, as to be expected, and junior goalkeeper Mandy Hall was perhaps the highlight of the game. Three of her five saves were of the spectacular variety, including a one-on-one stop in the first half in which she was a good 20 yards out in front of the net and still managed to knock away a shot diving to her left with one hand. I spoke to her after the game and her passion for the game just pours out, telling me anything less than a Sun Belt Championship this season will not be accepted.
Another player to watch this season is going to be freshman defender Danielle Guilliod. Hedlund brought her here to be an enforcer and she showed signs of some of that against the Horned Frogs. Guilliod stands at 5'10 and looks like she is going to be a very physical player, something that was lacking last year.
Obviously the inability to score last year was the ultimate reason North Texas failed to advance in the tournament and although no goals were scored in the first exhibition game I don't believe for any reason the offense will struggle as much this year. The Mean Green had three golden opportunities to put the ball in the net that they didn't capitalize on and didn't but come a couple of weeks those are going to be converted.
All in all it was a solid outing for a young team that is still trying to feel each other out. The talent is there, now it's just up to Hedlund and company to mold them and find the right combinations.
