Chapman women's soccer season preview
ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University women's soccer team's season gets underway Friday, Aug. 31 at home against Whitworth University (Wash.) at 7:30 p.m. as the team looks for its third winning season in four years. After back-to-back 12-7 seasons including an NCAA playoff berth, Chapman is coming off a 7-8-3 season in large part due to injuries.
The Panthers return 14 players this year that started at least one game and eight players who started eight games or more. An experienced duo of senior F Aimee Evans (10 goals, 2 assists) and junior F Val Sobol (4 goals, 1 assist) will lead an offense that scored 1.78 goals per game which ranked third in the SCIAC last season. Evans ranked fifth in the conference in goals scored and is 11th all-time on Chapman's career scoring list, just five points behind Kate Lilly who was a senior last season.
Junior F Camy Jun (3 goals) and sophomore Rebeccah Bortz (1 goal, 3 assists) also started games for the Panthers at the forward position in 2011. Bortz led the team in assists. Returning at midfield is senior Karina Cisneros (3 goals) who started 10 games as a junior.
Chapman's defense which ranked fourth in the SCIAC in goals-against average at 1.65 and recorded four shutouts should improve with the return of a pair of starters in junior Mandi Williams and senior Carly Sanchez. In addition, junior Christie Hendel started eight games for the Panthers on defense.
In net, senior Rissa Andersen is back after
starting 11 games in 2011. Andersen recorded 51 saves and two
shutouts with a 1.71 goals-against average as the Panthers' keeper
last season.
With a solid group of returners and new faces, Chapman has the
team in place to improve on last season's record and make a splash
in its first official season as a member of the SCIAC. Chapman
plays four non-conference games – two home, two away –
before its first-ever conference match which will be at Whittier on
Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.
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