If sports were based solely on expectations, the 2004 University of Tennessee soccer team would already be established in the record books as one of the best.
Reality, though – in the form of the season – starts with a contest against Duke at 7 p.m. tonight at the Tennessee Soccer Complex. The home start will be refreshing for a Lady Vol team that has begun the last three seasons on the road.
“It’s great to start at home this season,” coach Angela Kelly said. “To be able to play in front of a home crowd will be nice for our seniors, who have started every season before on the road.”
Eighth-ranked Tennessee heads into the opener with the highest preseason ranking in program history and was picked this week by league coaches to repeat as SEC champions.
“The ranking is nice,” Kelly said, “but the final poll is the one that truly matters to me.”
In that light, Tennessee takes to the field tonight against the Blue Devils to kick off the real season. The team will try and shake off an exhibition loss last Saturday at No. 5 Florida State.
Tennessee took the early lead with a goal by All-American senior defender Keeley Dowling, but the team was unable to stop a second-half charge by the Seminoles. Florida State scored three goals over the last 16 minutes to pick up a 3-1 victory.
The final result left Kelly gauging her team’s progress and knowing that the final score could have been different.
“The last goal came as the result of us pushing our offense forward to try and tie up the game with under 10 seconds left,” Kelly said. “When you do that, you risk having the other team score on you.
“We did some good things and we also had some shaky areas that we needed to tighten up.”
Tennessee faces a challenge in Duke, which comes into Knoxville returning nine starters from a team that made the NCAA tournament in 2003.
Last year’s Duke team featured a formidable offense, accumulating 48 goals – the program’s most since 1995.
The Blue Devils return their leading scorer from a year ago – junior forward Carolyn Riggs. She had eight goals and six assists in the 2003 season.
Along with Riggs’ contributions, Duke will rely on a strong midfield led by three-time, All-ACC first-teamer Casey McCluskey.
“I think we could stack up our midfield against anyone in the country,” fourth-year Duke coach Robbie Church said.
In addition to that strong midfield, the Blue Devils have a great deal of experience returning on defense. All four starting defenders return from last year’s 14-7-1 team.
“We have a lot of players who have played a good amount of minutes the last two years,” Church said. “We are looking for that experience to step forward.”
The Lady Vols see Duke as a challenge for their opener.
“Duke is a top-20 team who will test us,” Kelly said. “We want to get started on the right foot.”
