Wednesday, August 12, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (August 12, 2009) - After months of hard training and conditioning, including a successful first week of preseason camp practice, the ETSU women's soccer team kicks off its 2009 season as they host their first of two exhibition matches with a 4:00 p.m., contest against King College Thursday, at Summers-Taylor Stadium.

ETSU returns a host of players from last year's team that went 7-9-2 in 2008. The Bucs return three All-Atlantic Sun Conference players and 2009 captains in senior forward Jordan Monty (Mesquite, Texas), junior midfielder Kelly Brinkman (Clearwater, Fla.) and sophomore goalkeeper Megan Masch (Virginia Beach, Va.).

"I'm excited with the ladies taking responsibility in the summer to prepare themseleves physically and technically to arrive into preseason ready to go," said head coach Heather Henson. "We have great leadership with our three captains and senior players and I think that has transfered into very high energy with all our training sessions thus far."

King opens its preseason after having one of its best years in school history in 2008. The Lady Tornadoes won both the Appalachian Conference regular season and tournament championships a year ago, earning King's highest ever national ranking at No. 15.

After the match with King on Thursday, ETSU will host its second exhibition match of the 2009 season at 2:00 p.m., Sunday against Winthrop.

"It will be good to play some outside competition this weekend," said Henson. "These matches will help us where we are at with our focus on our preseason goals and where we are at with those items coming out of preseason." 

Tickets for both exhibition matches will be $5.00 for both reserve and general admission seats. Fans who are interested in purchasing tickets for either preseason match or the full season can now do so by calling the ETSU Ticket Office at (423) 439-3878.   

For more information on the ETSU women's soccer team please visit ETSUBucs.com. Also you can follow daily post and updates on the offical ETSU women's soccer team Twitter page at www.twitter.com/ETSUSoccer.