Texas Road Swing Awaits Bearcats This Week

// THE OPENING WHISTLE
The University of Cincinnati women's soccer team, currently sitting in a three-way tie for second in the American Athletic Conference standings, is set to hit the road this week for its final two regular-season away matches of 2019 as the Bearcats will face both SMU and Houston. The Bearcats, who stand 5-6-2 overall and 3-1-0 in the AAC, will open the trip Thursday with a 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET) match against the Mustangs (8-4-1/1-3-0 AAC) at Westcott Field in Dallas.

// GOING LIVE
Thursday's match will be streamed live and free on PonyUpTV via SMUMustangs.com. Live stats for the match also will be available on SMU's website.

// QUICK SHOTS
• Cincinnati enters Thursday's match at SMU with a 5-6-2 overall record and stands 3-1-0 in the AAC with nine points, tying them with both UCF and USF for second on the league table
• The Bearcats are off their third-best start in AAC play behind a pair of 3-0-1 starts (2015, 2017)
• Since starting the year 1-5-0, UC has gone 4-1-2, meaning a win Thursday at SMU would bring the Bearcats back to .500 for the first time since the second match of the year
• A win in Dallas Thursday also would be the first for UC in the series (0-3-1) and would mark the second year in a row UC has scored its first road win in series history (Tulsa, 2018)
• UC scored four goals Sunday to down Tulsa, 4-2, and score its first home goals of the year
• Han Tang netted her second brace of the year, the first time a UC player has scored multiple goals in multiple games in the same season since 2009
• For her efforts, Tang was selected to the AAC Weekly Honor Roll for the second time this year
• Senior Day was held Sunday prior to the match with Tulsa and Libby Greenwell celebrated by scoring her first collegiate goal on her first collegiate shot in her season debut
• Bri Costigan posted a pair of assists in the win, marking the first time at UC player has done so in a conference match since 2015

// KNOW THE FOE: SMU
• The Mustangs enter Thursday with an 8-4-1 record overall and standing 1-3-0 in the AAC after defeating Temple (1-0) and falling to UConn (0-1) on the road last weekend
• Allie Thornton continues to lead the offense for SMU with her 20 points on 10 goals while both Celiana Torres and Hannah Allred have added four goals each
• Tatum Sutherland has seen all by 135 minutes of play in goal, recording 41 saves on the year

// NOTING THE SERIES: BEARCATS-MUSTANGS
• Cincinnati trails in the all-time series, 3-5-2, and has lost the last three in a row
• The Bearcats have not defeated the Mustangs in Dallas, trailing 3-0-1 in the series at SMU's home
• The last time UC faced SMU was last year in Cincinnati, a 2-0 victory for SMU
• SMU also won the last meeting in Dallas, a 1-0 decision October 22, 2017

// TRY AGAIN
With a win Thursday, the Bearcats will crossed the final team off their list of opponents they had not defeated in a conference match on the road. Last year, Cincinnati traveled to Tulsa and defeated the Golden Hurricane, 2-0, to mark the first time in program history the Bearcats had won at Tulsa. With that win, SMU is the only team in the AAC the Bearcats have not bested on the road in a conference match in program history.

// QUICK CAP • WEEKEND SPLIT
• Cincinnati, coming off an open week, split its two league matches, falling at home to #8 Memphis, 3-0, before rebounding to down Tulsa, 4-2
• The results helped UC move into a tie for second in the AAC with both UCF and USF
• Han Tang scored twice with both Camryn Hartman and Libby Greenwell adding goals
• Bri Costigan assisted twice to also help UC to victory Sunday

// FEELING HONORED
Following the weekend, the league handed out its weekly awards with Tang earning a place on the Honor Roll for the second time this year. Tang finished with a brace in the opening 19 minutes of action and scored the team's first goals at home this year, snapping a scoreless span of 303 minutes.

// RUNNING TOTALS
So far this year, five Bearcats have combined to earn nine total awards from the AAC, including a trio of major awards as Madison Less has twice (8/26 & 9/16) been named the goalkeeper of the week while Ashley Barron earned the defensive player of the week award once (9/30). For the Honor Roll, Tang (9/16 & 10/14) joins Less (9/23 & 9/30) as two-time honorees while both Vanessa DiNardo (8/26) and Camryn Hartman (9/30) have earned one recognition.

// WOO, TANG!
Earlier this year, Tang recorded her first brace as she netted a pair of goals against Lipscomb, marking the first multiple-goal game by a UC player since 2017 when Julie Gavorski scored twice against Northwestern. With her two goals against Tulsa, Tang became the first Bearcats player to bag two braces in a season since 2009. That year, Julie Morrissey recorded back-to-back matches with two goals each as she accomplished the feat against Xavier at home (9/10) and at Eastern Kentucky (9/13).

// LOTS OF HART(MAN)
In the Tulsa match, the third goal scored turned out to be the game-winner as Camryn Hartman tallied the goal after hammering home a shot off a blocked attempts from Julia Abbott. For Hartman, the sophomore now has two goals this year, both of which are the only two of her career. More importantly, both goals are game-winners in conference matches this year with the first coming at Temple.

// BATTING 1.000
What would Senior Day be without a little magic! After celebrating the team's eight seniors and with action underway, Libby Greenwell was sent into the match with the senior defender logging her first minutes of the season and just her 10th appearance overall. After settling in, she came forward for a corner kick that Bri Costigan played toward the front post where Delaney Riester back-heeled the ball toward the top of the six-yard box. There, Greenwell slotted home a shot and made it 4-1. The goal was not only the first score and first points of the senior's career, but it also came on her first collegiate shot attempt, making her a perfect 1-of-1 shooting in college.

// HAPPY TO HELP
In the match with Tulsa, Costigan assisted on a pair of goals. Not only is that a career high for the senior and ties her single-game career-high for points, it also marked the first time since 2015 that a Bearcats player recorded two or more helpers in a conference match. The last time it happed was September 24, 2015, when Danielle Rotheram recorded assists on both goals in UC's 2-2 draw with SMU in Dallas, the only non-loss UC has recorded against the Mustangs in Dallas.

// FIRST TIME SINCE...
• The win over Tulsa Sunday marked the first home conference win for UC since a 1-0 win over ECU that closed out the 2017 season (10/27/17)
• The four goals scored by UC are the most tallied this year and the most in a conference match since a 5-4 overtime loss to visiting Louisville six years ago (10/25/13)
• The combined six goals scored are the most since the Bearcats won, 9-0, over visiting EKU (9/5/14)
• Tang's two goal performance is the first conference brace recorded in just under three years after Julie Gavorski scored twice in a 2-0 win over SMU (10/16/16)

// MIDWAY STANDINGS
Sunday was Match Day 6 in the AAC with the Bearcats playing for the fourth time with their 'off' week from league play coming the week before. Through Sunday, the Bearcats are 3-1-0 in AAC play and have accumulated nine points, placing them in a three-way tie with UCF and USF, who are both on nine points following their 'off' week. Memphis continues to lead on 16 points (5-0-1). There are five more match days remaining in the season, including two this week, two next week and the regular-season finale October 31. Those matches will determine the Top 6 on the table with the #3 and #4 teams hosting the #6 and #5 teams, respectively, on November 3 in the first round of the AAC Tournament with the #1 team hosting the semifinal finals and finals.

// STRONG START
Standing 3-1-0, the Bearcats have posted their third-best start to an AAC campaign as both the 2015 and 2017 sides opened with 3-0-1 records. With a win Thursday, the Bearcats would move to 4-1-0 to post the second-best start (4-0-1 in 2017) and mark just the second time in seven years UC has opened a AAC slate with four wins in five league matches.

// SWEEP IT UP
To get off to one of its best starts, the Bearcats needed wins and got that from the jump. UC opened with wins at Temple and UConn collected six points in league play. The points sweep is the first the Bearcats since 2017 when they downed UConn (1-0) and Temple (3-0) on the road September 28 and October 1, respectively. In fact, of the 19 weekend sweeps the Bearcats have captured in program history, the wins over the Owls and Huskies two weeks ago gives UC four as members of the AAC with the other two coming at home, including a sweep of the Florida schools in 2015 (1-0 over #18 USF and 2-0 over UCF) and the Texas schools in 2014 (1-0 over both SMU and Houston). Prior to the Texas sweep, the last time UC had accomplished the feat was in 2002.

// STREAKS SNAPPED
This past week's matches saw a pair of streaks snapped for the Bearcats. Defensively, the goal allowed to #8 Memphis at 24:11 halted UC's shutout streak at 497:15, the eighth-longest in program history and the second-longest under Neil Stafford (588:19 in 2017). On the offensive side of the ball, Tang's first goal at 13:56 stopped a streak of 303 minutes in which UC had not scored at him this year. That included losses to Western Michigan, Northwestern and Memphis and scoreless draws to both Xavier and Austin Peay.

PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// MAKING THE GRADE
Last week, the United Soccer Coaches announced their Team Academic Awards for the 2018-19 season with the Bearcats program not only earning its 13th overall and fifth in a row, but also posting the highest GPA of all women's and men's four-year programs in the nation (tied with St. John's) with a 3.79 GPA. UC, who had the best GPA among all teams in the AAC last year and was named the recipient of the AAC Team Academic Excellence Award for the first time, continues to shatter records. Prior to Neil Stafford's arrival in 2013, the program had a GPA of under 3.00. Now, it continually strives to surpass its stated annual goal of a collective 3.51 team GPA.

// MORE QUICKNESS
At Temple, Hartman bagged her first career goal when she netted a shot at 58:29 to put UC up, 1-0. That goal, which would eventually become the game-winner, was followed by a score from Gorman at 60:37. With just 2:08 between the two goals, it marked the third time this season the Bearcats have scored back-to-back goals in under 2:10. Previously, Vanessa DiNardo scored a brace in the season-opening 2-0 win over St. John's with her two goals coming 21 seconds apart. Two weeks before the goals at Temple, Gorman (63:20) and Han Tang (PK at 65:16) combined to scored two goals in a span of 1:47. All told, those three sets of goals this year rank as the #1 (0:21), #10 (1:47) and #12 (2:08) spans since electronic stats began in 2001 and brings the total in that time 22 back-to-back goals scored in under four minutes for UC, 10 of which have come under Neil Stafford (2013+).

// LATE WINNER
Sydney Goins' overtime winner at UConn (93:14) stands as the seventh-latest goal scored in the Stafford Era (2013+) and the seventh overtime winner in that span. With the addition of Goins' time, the 'Cardiac Cats' have now scored 26 goals in the 85' or later under Stafford, including 19 in the final five minutes of regulation. With Ying Zhan's goal at Tennessee earlier this year (82:36), the Bearcats have now scored 30 goals in the 83' or later under Stafford as well.

// BEEN A WHILE
With the win at UConn, the Bearcats snapped a streak of 12 matches in a row in which UC played into overtime of a regular season conference match and did not win. In those 12 matches, the Bearcats were 4-8-0 with the last victory in an overtime AAC contest going all the way back to the inaugural season of 2013, a 3-2 win in double overtime at home against Memphis. During that time, UC did defeat a league opponent in overtime when it downed #10 UConn, 3-2, in the first overtime, but that doesn't count toward this mark as it came in the semifinals of the 2016 AAC Tournament.

// SCORELESS DRAWS
The Bearcats are in the midst of their 40th varsity season after opening their program's history in 1980. Including last Saturday's 0-0 draw with visiting APSU, UC has played 746 matches all-time. Of those 746 contests, only 24 have ended in a scoreless draw with eight coming since 2015. In fact, UC has played at least one scoreless draw in each of the last five years (2015-19) with the first two in that span coming at home to LU and then at Xavier in 2015.

// EVEN MORE RARE
Additionally, in regards to scoreless draws, the Bearcats' current two-match streak ties for the longest in program history with the 1983 squad (Year 3 of the program). That season, UC traveled to the Tournament of Champions in Courtland, N.Y., and drew with both Springfield and UConn on successive days for the only other back-to-back 0-0 score lines in program history.

// HOME OVERTIME
When playing in home overtime matches, the Bearcats have been tough to beat recently as they are undefeated in their last 13, holding a 2-0-11 record. The last time UC lost in overtime at home came in 2013 in a 5-4 loss to Louisville. Prior to the current streak, the longest stretch of undefeated home overtime matches was six and came two times, first from 1996-98 (3-0-3) and then from 1999-03 (5-0-1). All told, the Bearcats are 18-19-30 all-time in home OTs.

// PROTECT THIS HOUSE
Since the start of the 2013 season, the Bearcats have played 63 home matches, posting a 38-11-14 record in that time. Through last season, UC has won at least five home contests each season with eight in 2017, seven wins in 2014 and 2015, six in 2016 and four in 2013. Also, in that time, UC has out-scored its guests, 98-47 (+51).

// FRIENDLY CONFINES
In their first five seasons, Stafford and his staff accumulated 32 home wins, the most of any UC women's soccer coach in his/her first five seasons. Meridy Glenn's teams from 1983 to 1987 won 28 matches and posted a .843 win percentage (28-4-3) in her first five years. Expanding into the first six years, Glenn's teams won 34 home matches (34-5-3) while Stafford's Bearcats won 37 (37-9-12) thanks to a 5-2-3 home record in 2018.

// SUNDAY FUN DAY!
Since Stafford took over the program in time for the 2013 season, the Bearcats have played at home on Sunday 30 times and hold an impressive 24-2-4 record in those matches. In that span, the Bearcats have not only posted an impressive record, but also have outscored their foes, 58-20, while the defense has recorded 16 clean sheets.

// MANY MINUTES
Through their first nine matches, the Bearcats have averaged 20 players seeing minutes each match, including 12 freshmen (four) and sophomores (eight). In fact, if you include all underclassmen (non-seniors), the Bearcats have featured an average of 15 players seeing playing time that are not seniors.

// YOUTHFUL LOOK
Not only are the younger players logging minutes, they also are earning starts. So far in 2019, six different players have earned their first collegiate starts. That list includes a trio of freshmen in Kendall Battle (3 starts), Ashley Barron (4) and Han Tang (4), and a trio of sophomores, including Morgan Jackson (4), Taylor Nuncio (1) and Ying Zhan (4). Jackson and Nuncio played at Louisville last year and did not record a start while Zhan appeared in 16 matches for UC as a freshman with no starts.

// BACK IN THE DAY...
• Han Tang's brace (at Lipscomb) was the second recorded this year after Vanessa DiNardo accomplished the feat in the season-opening win over St. John's. Prior to that, UC had not seen a player score more than one goal in a match since Sept. 3, 2017, when Julie Gavorski scored two at Northwestern
• The last time UC converted a spot kick came October 4, 2018, when Bri Costigan scored a PK at USF
• The last time the Bearcats scored more than two goals in a match was October 16, 2017, in a 4-0 defeat of visiting Morehead State

// LONG-RANGE SCORING
Ying Zhan not only scored her first collegiate goal (at #20 Tennessee), but she did so in stunning fashion. After Camryn Hartman carried the ball through traffic, she sent a pass to Julia Abbott, who dropped it a cutting Zhan. From there, the sophomore ripped a shot from 25-yards out and blasted the ball toward the upper 90 with the keeper's dive not coming in time.

// ON THE LIST
Since Neil Stafford took over the program in 2013, the Bearcats have had a habit of scoring late in matches. Zhan's goal is the 29th scored in the final 10 minutes of regulation and overtime under Stafford and the 23rd in just the final 10 minutes of regulation. To put in perspective, UC has scored a goal in the final 10 minutes and overtime in 23 percent of the 127 matches played under Stafford through the match at Tennessee.

// HAPPY HELPERS
Setting up Zhan's goal was the work of two of her teammates, Julia Abbott and Camryn Hartman. With their assists, the duo each picked up their first points of the season with Abbott securing the first assist of her collegiate career. Hartman recorded the second assist of her career.

// FIRST MULTIPLE
With the loss to Northwestern, the Bearcats dropped back-to-back home contests for the first time since Neil Stafford took over coaching duties in 2013. Previously, the last time UC feel twice in a row came in 2012 when UC fell to #11 Georgetown and Villanova, both by 1-0 scores.

// WAIT RIGHT THERE!
Five matches into the season, the Bearcats have played a total of 360 minutes. Four matches into the season, the Bearcats also have endured 265 minutes of lightning delays. On opening day, UC played 16:09 against St. John's before a 95 minute delay hit the books. After no delays at Virginia Tech, the Bearcats had to wait 124 minutes to start their match at Missouri. Then, Sunday, a pop-up storm pushed back the start of UC's home match with Western Michigan by 46 minutes.

// ACCOUNTS OPENED
In the match at Missouri, both of UC's Chinese players found their ways on to the scoresheet as Han Tang and Ying Zhan combined for the Bearcats' lone goal of the night. In the 34', UC was awarded a free kick with Zhan set to take it from the right flank. Zhan slid a pass toward the top of the box where an unmarked Tang met the pass and fired a shot by the keeper for the 1-0 lead. The goal and two points for Tang and the assist and one point for Zhan are all the first of their collegiate careers.

// BRACE YOURSELF!
After playing 16:09 in the opener against, ironically, the Red Storm, a lightning storm forced the teams off the pitch for 95 minutes. Once the storm moved on and play resumed, more lightning was seen, this time not from the sky, but from the quick scoring of the Bearcats. The lightning came early in the second half, starting with Vanessa DiNardo, a preseason AAC all-conference selection in 2019, finding the back of the net at 51:39 off a long pass from Sydney Goins. Then, 21 seconds later, at 52:00, DiNardo hit the back of the net again, this time after UC stole the ball and saw Pittman fire a shot that hit the post and deflected to DiNardo, who made it 2-0. Not only did that spark UC to a 2-0 win, it also gave DiNardo her first career game-winning goal and saw her double her college goal scoring output after she scored once last year.

// HISTORICAL HITS
Sifting through the archives dating back to the start of the 2001 season, the quick brace for DiNardo is the fastest found. As it stands, the next closest brace scored came from Danielle Rotheram in 2014 against St. Francis when she scored her brace 2:11 apart with goals at 66:18 and 68:29. In fact, prior to DiNardo's double, the quickest back-to-back goals scored by the Bearcats (since 2001) came in 2001 against USF when Ann Thomas (59:28) and Tasha Wagner (59:51) scored 37 seconds apart. Overall, since 2001, DiNardo's brace is the 10th time UC has scored back-to-back goals in under two minutes.

// PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS
Ahead of the season, the coaches of the American Athletic Conference voted on several things, including how they think each team will finish in the regular-season standings. In that poll, the Bearcats were voted to place sixth and earn the final spot in the 2019 AAC Tournament. USF (76 points) and Memphis (74) both received four first-place votes in what the coaches feel will be a tight race for the top of the table. UCF, SMU and ECU were picked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, with UConn, Houston, Temple and Tulsa all placed behind UC.

// FEELING HONORED
As part of their voting, the coaches also selected preseason all-conference players with UC's Vanessa DiNardo, a unanimous selection to last year's AAC All-Rookie Team, earning a spot on the 2019 list. With her selection, DiNardo gave UC a preseason honoree for the fourth year in a row after not having a representative on the lists in the first three years of the league.

// LORDY, LORDY... LOOK WHO'S 40!
The 2019 season will mark the 40th season of play for the Bearcats as a varsity program. Begun in 1980, the Bearcats have compiled an overall record of 387-286-64 in the first 39 years on campus and have captured seven conference tournament crowns and two regular season titles to go along with seven NCAA appearances.

// ANOTHER BIRTHDAY
With an overall record of 197-102-31 in home matches in the history of the program, this year's team is three home wins away from 200. Reaching 200 home wins would be very fitting for this year as 2019 marks the University's bicentennial after being founded in 1819.

// NEXT UP
The Bearcats will close out their final regular-season road trip Sunday at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) when they travel to Houston to face the Cougars.