Soccer Faces Tough Road Trip

FAYETTEVILLE – The University of Arkansas Lady Razorback soccer team knows that it is in great position as it sits second in the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division, but also knows that it has a brutal road trip on the horizon as it prepares to face the Tennessee Lady Vols and Georgia Bulldogs this weekend.

The Lady Razorbacks picked up a road split a week ago and hope to continue the pace against a pair of the conference’s best squads. Arkansas’ first competition comes against Tennessee on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. central time. The Lady Vols enter the contest with the only perfect 4-0-0 record in SEC play and are ranked as high as seventh in the nation by the major women’s soccer polls. Arkansas has had some success against Tennessee in years past, but a focused Lady Vol team hopes for a repeat of the 2003 match when Tennessee came to Fayetteville and left with a 3-0 win.

“I feel that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain tomorrow night,” Arkansas head coach Gordon Henderson said. “We are clearly the underdogs and that is a great position to be in.”

Arkansas’ matches over the weekend are once again to be broadcast on KXUA 88.3 FM in the Fayetteville area and on the internet at www.ladybacks.com.

For Arkansas to keep pace with the rest of the SEC leaders, it must walk away from the weekend’s matches with at least one tie in its two contests. The Lady’Backs enter the weekend three points, or one win, out of first place in the western division and have the Ole Miss Lady Rebels breathing down their necks as they are just a point behind Arkansas.

“Any time you play a weekend set in the SEC you have to go in thinking that you will get a point,” Henderson said. “I know that we have a confident group of young women that are thinking that they are doing better everyone thought they would at this point and that is a great place to build from. I already know that this team has learned a lot about themselves from their performance against Ole Miss. They were disappointed and angry at themselves and it showed.”

Following Arkansas’ Friday night tussle, it travels to Athens, Ga., to take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. For more information about Lady Razorback soccer or about Arkansas women’s athletics, please go to www.ladybacks.com.