USF Women's Soccer Takes on UCF to Begin the Season

Fire up, the season is here! (Picture: USF Oracle)

The regular season is finally here!  The 2012 season begins for women's soccer as the Bulls take on the UCF Knights at Corbett Stadium at 7:30 tonight.  After taking on FGCU and Jacksonville in exhibition games last week, the Bulls stay at home as they welcome a foe from just up the road.

USF, 6-8-4 (2-6-3), will be looking to get the 2012 campaign started off on the right foot but with the Knights in town, it will be a tough first game.  UCF is coming off of a 13-5-6 (6-2-3) season where they made it to the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament.  The Knights also beat USF 5 to 1 last season to open the year in Orlando, so the Bulls will be looking to get off to a hot start against a talented Knights team (game starts at 7:30PM at Corbett).

The Knights after their Elite 8 from last season return in 2012 with a loaded roster.  Senior forward Tishia Jewell (5-6) is their primary striker that scored 7 goals and took 91 shots (led the team) and added 10 assists as well.  Senior midfielder Nicolette Radovcic (5-4) scored 8 goals and 4 assists last season, giving the Knights a dangerous 1-2 punch on the front line.  Junior midfielder/forward Kristina Trujic (5-4) added 4 goals and 3 assists last season, senior defender Bianca Joswiak (5-6) added 4 a goals and 3 assists, senior midfielder Andrea Rodrigues (5-6) added a goal and 3 assists, and sophomore midfielder/forward Emily Grider (5-9) added 2 goals to round out a loaded offensive club that will challenge the young USF backline and the goalkeeper in the first game of the season.  The Knights are very dangerous on the attack and will attempt to dictate the pressure against the Bulls, this is where the seniors have to rise up and lead the counter attack to take the pressure off of the backline.

On the other side, the Bulls will be facing a young goalkeeper in sophomore Lianne Maldonado played for just 16 minutes last season, making 1 save.  She is replacing Aline Reis, so the Bulls front line with Stokes, Bala, and others need to take advantage of a young goalkeeper and keep up the pressure.  If they are able to dictate the attack and tempo of the game, they can take the pressure off their backline and give the defense a break.

This is going to be a very interesting game to watch to start the season.  The Bulls are a young team that has a lot of new players and rotations that will be hitting the field for the first time and with a tough team like UCF, it will be fun to watch how they respond to such an early challenge to begin the year.  Key players such as Sharla Passariello, Demi Stokes, and Summer Ikeda got into rhythm in the exhibition games, but this is a different level of competition they are facing and have to be at their best if they want to win.  After this game, the Bulls will take on Miami on Sunday at 1PM as they look to get off to a good start to begin the season against in-state foes.