Women's Soccer
Women's Soccer: Big Red Receives 11th NCAA Tournament Invite
Date: November 05, 2007
Location: GRANVILLE
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For the 11th time in school history, and the ninth time in 11 seasons under the direction of head coach Gail Murphy, the Denison Big Red women's soccer program will be playing in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Denison, one of 18 teams who received an at-large bid from the NCAA, will travel to St. Louis, Mo. to face Rose-Hulman on Saturday Nov. 10 at 11 a.m.
Washington University-St. Louis is the host site for the four-team opening two rounds of play. The winner of the Denison-Rose-Hulman match will face the winner of the WashU-Webster match on Sunday, Nov. 11.
The Big Red enters the 60-team tournament with a record of 13-5-2 and are ranked 21st in the latest NSCAA/adidas top-25 coaches poll. DU is coming off a 2-1, overtime loss to Wittenberg in the championship match of the 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday.
In each of the last two seasons Denison has advanced to the NCAA sectionals (round of 16), including an appearance in the quarterfinals (round of eight) in 2005. The Big Red sports a record of 7-10-2 in NCAA Tournament play and is 13-5-2 in 2007. This year's team is led in scoring by junior Sarah Ash (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) and sophomore Anna Rusch (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends). Both players are tied for the team-lead in points with 17. Rusch leads the team in goals with eight and Ash has dished out a team-best five assists. Senior backs Kim Cochran (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) and Kia Anderson (Hamilton Square, N.J./Princeton) hold down the defense while four-year starter Liz Gillette (Chardon, Ohio/NDCL) will take her 0.61 career goals against average into the NCAA Tournament for the third time in her career.
Rose Hulman defeated Transylvania 1-0 in the finals of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference on Saturday to earn their conference's automatic bid. The Engineers are 19-2 on the season and boast a high-powered offense that has scored 81 goals in 21 contests. Julie Roebel leads the team with 19 goals and Molly Richardson follows with 17.