RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- After nearly two weeks of preseason workouts, the Concordia-Chicago women's soccer team is ready to open up the 2019 season with three straight home matches this weekend.
Complete game programs with rosters for this weekend's match ups are available here.
Setting the Scene... First, the Cougars will welcome Webster University to Concordia Stadium on Friday night, before returning to the pitch Saturday afternoon to take on Greenville University. After that, CUC will host Lake Forest College on Monday, Sept. 2 at 4:30 p.m.
Cougar Country... With a sixth-seed prediction among the NACC preseason poll, the Cougars will return 72 percent of their goal scoring offense from a year ago, a season which included an NACC quarterfinals appearance. Senior
Samantha Wozniak will lead CUC's front line as the leading scorer from 2018, with 12 points off five goals and two assists. Following suit are juniors
Esmeralda Torres and
Cecilia Kochanek, who scored 10 and seven points, respectively, during their sophomore seasons.
Scouting the Gorloks... CUC will jump right into action on Friday, taking on heavyweight opponent Webster University. The Gorloks, who went 16-3-1 last season, were recently predicted to win their eighth consecutive St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship. Webster has won the last seven regular season titles and five of the last seven SLIAC tournament championships. The Gorloks return five starters from a season ago, including Melissa Kasper, Lilly Brauer and Ryleigh Grommet who took home the SLIAC's Offensive, Defense and Newcomer of the Year awards in 2018, respectively.
vs. Greenville... After falling 2-0 to Greenville last season, the Cougars will look to pounce on the Panthers early on Saturday. Greenville was tabbed to finish fourth among the SLIAC in the conference's preseason poll, after losing in the championship game last season. Returning two of their top three scorers from 2018, the Panthers will look to Breanna Thomas and Kate Arthur to produce offense, as the duo combined for 21 goals and 14 assists last year.
A Look at Lake Forest... After an 8-9-1 campaign in 2018, the Foresters were predicted to finish fourth overall among the Midwest Conference this season. Returning their top two leading scorers in Morgan Henrichs and Julia Larson, the duo scored 15 and nine points, respectively, last season. CUC dropped an early non-conference match up, 1-0, to Lake Forest last season and is 0-8 all time against the Foresters.
Keep up with all of the action this weekend
@CUCWSOC on Twitter and check out the live coverage for all home contests at
cucougars.com/coverage.
