Air Force Travels To San Jose State and Pacific
9/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 22, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Air Force Falcons (2-6-1) vs. San Jose State Spartans (3-4)
Friday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. @ Spartan Stadium - San Jose, Calif.
Air Force Falcons vs. Pacific Tigers (5-2-2)
Sunday, Sept. 27, 12 p.m. @ Stagg Stadium - Stockton, Calif.
Air Force Travels To San Jose State and Pacific
The Air Force women's soccer team hits the road for its final non-conference games traveling to San Jose State and Pacific. The Falcons take on SJSU on Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. and UOP on Sunday, Sept. 27, at noon. Live stats will be available for both games and internet radio is slated to be available for the Pacific match.
Last Week
Air Force split a pair of matches last weekend, losing 1-0 to Cal Poly and defeating New Hampshire 1-0. Bridgett Murphy's goal in the 77th minute lifted the Falcons to the win over UNH. Charity Blanton and Ariana Green split time in goal in both matches.
Falcon Leaders
Freshman midfielder Stephanie Patterson leads the team with five points and three assists. Sophomore forward Kelly Bieber and Murphy are tied for the team lead with two goals scored. Freshman Charity Blanton has played all 741 minutes in front of the net for the Falcons, and has 36 saves on the season to go with a 1.70 goals-allowed average. Sophomore Ariana Green logged 90 minutes in reserve last weekend, and has a 1.00 GAA to go with six saves.
One of Nation's Youngest Teams
Air Force has one of the youngest women's soccer teams in the nation, as 24 of the 28 players on the roster are underclassmen. Air Force has just two seniors and two juniors and have 12 freshmen and sophomores. Air Force started 10 underclassmen in its last two games and have started at least eight underclassmen in every game.
Team Captains
Seniors Susan Finch and Kelsey Yip are team captains for the 2009 season. Both are three-year letterwinners.
Scouting The Opponents
San Jose State enters the weekend with a 3-4 record after defeating Howard, 8-0, and UC Davis, 1-0. Seniors Emmy Belding and Roxy Kamal are tied for the team lead with eight points. Juniors Nina Butera and Danielle Anderson have split time at goalkeeper. Butera is 3-2 with 1.30 GAA in 415 minutes and Anderson is 0-2 with a 1.60 GAA in 225 minutes.
Pacific is 5-2-2 after defeating Fresno State, 3-1, and tying San Francisco 1-1. Sophomore Angelica Figueroa and freshman Maricela Padilla lead the team with 14 points each. Junior Jill Medigovich has a 0.85 GAA to go with 23 saves in 850 minutes in front of the net.
The Coaches
Larry Friend is in his first year as the head coach at Air Force. The 1985 USAFA grad. has 12 years of assistant coaching experience at the Academy. He is just the second women's soccer head coach at Air Force.
Jeff Leightman is in his first year at SJSU. A 1995 Binghamton grad., Leightman is 105-70-1 in his 11th year as a head coach.
Keith Coleman is 143-120-2 in his 16th year as a head coach at Pacific.
Opponent Connections
- Air Force has three players on its roster from California.
Charity Blanton - Lancaster (Quartz Hill HS)
Shannon Nail - Visalia (Golden West HS)
Krystin Shanklin - Thousand Oaks (Westlake HS)
Series History vs. Opponents
- The series with SJSU is tied at 1-1. The Spartans won last year 3-1 at the Academy.
- Pacific leads the series with Air Force 2-0-1. UOP won 3-0 in the last meeting at the Academy in 2006.
Up Next
Air Force opens Mountain West Conference play, hosting Wyoming on Friday, Oct. 2.
