UD Women's Soccer Opens 2021 Season at Home vs. Schreiner; Season Preview
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas women's soccer team will begin their season Saturday, February 27 at home. The Crusaders are scheduled to play the Mountaineers of Schreiner University to open the season.
UD will host Texas Lutheran University on March 7 in Irving before alternating the next three weeks between home and away. Dallas travels to Shreveport, Louisiana, on March 13 to take on Centenary College of Louisiana. The following week UD returns home to play Trinity University on March 20 before heading up to Sherman, Texas to play Austin College on March 27.
The Crusaders play their final road game of the season down in Houston against St. Thomas University on April 1, and return to Irving on April 10 to conclude the regular season against the Pirates of Southwestern University.
The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship will take place over two weekends from April 17-25. The tournament will start with the Quarterfinal Round on April 17 with the higher seed hosting the game. The Semi-finals and Finals will be held the following weekend Friday and Sunday hosted by Texas Lutheran.
To see the full schedule click the link below:
UD currently has 22 names on the roster led by seniors Lexi Tocci (Austin, Texas) and Veronica Garcia (San Antonio, Texas). Tocci played in all 19 games of 2019, starting in 17 and was a part of a UD defense that had eight shutouts and held opponents scoreless for over 477 minutes during a stretch of seven games. Garcia played mostly as a substitute and appeared in three games in 2019.
Dallas' offense is led by sophomore Alyssa Mencacci (League City, Texas) who in 2019 was 5th in the SCAC for goals scored with eight goals. Mencacci also was twice awarded as the SCAC Offensive Player of the Week, won the SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year award, and was named 2nd Team All-SCAC.
UD's next two highest scoring returning scorers are Makayla Snow (North Richland Hills, Texas) and Bella Luna (San Antonio, Texas) both of whom scored two goals apiece in 2019. The Crusaders will also be returning May Lien Le (Katy, Texas) and Michelle MacIntyre (Houston, Texas) who are the only two remaining players from the 2019 team to start all 19 games from that season. Lien Le is a two-time selection for the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) All-American teams (1st in 2018) (2nd in 2019). Mencacci is the other UD returner that was an All-American in her rookie campaign.
To see the full roster and 2019 stats click the links below.
The Crusaders were picked third in the SCAC Preseason Coaches' Poll for the 2020-2021 season. Dallas garnered 43 points behind first place Trinity at 63 points and Southwestern at 57 and ahead of St. Thomas and TLU and 30 each.
UD Head Coach, Lexi Stinson, enters her fourth season in charge of the women's soccer program. Last season Stinton led UD to its first winning season since 2014. In 2019, UD went 10-7-2 with a 5-2-1 conference record finishing 4th in the SCAC standings.
For the past two seasons, Dallas has not only made it to the SCAC tournament, but have reached the Semi-finals both years. In 2018, the Crusaders advanced via defeating Texas Lutheran on penalty kicks 4-2 after tying in regulation 2-2, and in 2019 they advanced by defeating TLU again, this time by shutout 2-0.
To see the 2019 SCAC standings click the link below.
Saturday's home opener against Schreiner will be at 3 p.m.