University of North Texas Athletics
University of North Texas
Southern Miss
Mean Green Begin Conference Play
9/20/2018 2:32:00 AM | Women's Soccer
HATTIESBURG, Mississippi — After two postponed matches due to severe weather and 13 days, the Mean Green soccer team is finally back in action as they begin conference play on Thursday at Southern Miss at 4:00 p.m.
North Texas (5-1-1) was rolling before its nearly two week break and will look to restart its engine against a Golden Eagle (7-1) squad that has won seven matches in a row and beaten its last three opponents by a combined score of 9-1.
"The time off has been tough," said senior Carissa Sanders. "We hadn't played a match in so long I've had to go out and run long distance on my own to make up for the games we've had to postpone."
Prior to UNT's two postponed matches, they had won three in a row — two of which were on the road. Leading the way for the Mean Green over those three matches was senior Taylor Torres. The forward recorded eight points on three goals and two assists in those matches and had emerged as one of the top offensive players in Conference USA.
Torres' 14 total points this season leads the team and is just five off her 2017 total, which was a career-best for her. Despite having played less matches than the rest of the conference, Torres' 14 points still are the third-most in C-USA headed into Thursday's contest.
Torres is on pace to finish the regular season with 34 points. The last time a UNT soccer player had 34 points in a season was in 2007 when Janaye Woods had 34.
"She's been playing great and with a lot of confidence," Sanders said of her classmate. "We're very proud of her and excited for her to only get better this season."
The Mean Green of course are aiming to win a conference championship for the fifth consecutive year and with Thursday's match being the first of the 10 regular season conference matches, head coach John Hedlund has emphasized this stretch of the season and not losing focus.
Starting the conference schedule off with a victory has generally been a sure thing for the Mean Green. They haven't lost the first conference game of a season since 2010 when they lost 2-1 at Western Kentucky when the programs played in the Sun Belt Conference. Furthermore, North Texas has never lost to Southern Miss in its three all-time meetings. The last time UNT and USM played was in 2015 and the Mean Green won 2-0.
However, this is a much improved Golden Eagles team that is led by Miah Zuazua who leads C-USA with seven goals and is second in points with 18. USM has scored five or more goals in three matches this season. UNT has only allowed three goals all year and has yet to allow more than one in a match. They are also 4-0 when they score two or more goals.
North Texas began the 2017 conference schedule 6-0-1 as they proceeded to win the 2017 C-USA Tournament championship.
