EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Southern Indiana women's soccer team kicks off the 2012 regular season on the road when it travels to Ohio for a pair of games that start a four-game road swing. USI travels to Columbus, Ohio, to play Ohio Dominican University at 6 p.m. (CDT) Thursday in the season opener and concludes the first half of the road trip in Springfield, Ohio, against Urbana University for a neutral site match at noon (CDT) Saturday.
The Screaming Eagles have opened the regular season on the road in nine of the last 10 seasons. The road trip concludes the following week when USI opens the Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule at Quincy University September 7 and the University of Illinois Springfield September 9.
The Eagles were a perfect 2-0-0 in the preseason, defeating Georgetown College, 2-0, and Oakland City University, 9-0, at Strassweg Field. Senior forward
Susan Ellsperman (Newburgh, Indiana) and freshman defender
Emily Cummings (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Eagles during the preseason with six points each. Both had two goals and two assists.
Between the posts, freshman goalkeeper
Jackie Lohmann (Owensboro, Kentucky) picked up both wins. Lohamann did not allow a goal during the two exhibition games, making three saves.
ODU, which was picked to finish second in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference preseason poll, returns 17 players from a squad that was 10-6-3 overall in 2011 and captured the program's first South Division title with a conference mark of 8-4-2. The USI-ODU match-up Thursday is the first meeting between the two programs.
Urbana opens its 2012 campaign by hosting USI at nearby Wittenburg University. The Blue Knights were 5-12-1 during the 2011 campaign and will join the Great Midwest Athletic Conference with Kentucky Wesleyan College next fall.
USI leads the all-time series with Urbana, 2-1-0, but lost the last meeting in 2010, 1-0, at Strassweg Field. The Eagles won the first meeting in 2008, 4-0, at Strassweg Field and the second match-up, 1-0, at Urbana in 2009.
