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Bulldogs Travel to Honolulu for Pair of Weekend Matches
Sept. 20, 2005 FUN IN THE SUN: Fresh off the team's most impressive win in the last few seasons (a 1-0 win over nationally-ranked Dayton), Butler makes their longest trip of the year, traveling to Honolulu, Hawaii for a pair of weekend matches. The Bulldogs (4-4) will take on the host Rainbows Friday before tangling with Robert Morris Saturday. Butler has faced neither Hawaii nor Robert Morris in the program's 15-year history. TWICE AS NICE: Freshman Angie Muir picked up Horizon League "Player of the Week" accolades for the week of Sept. 19, the second time that the Carmel, Ind., standout has been honored. The freshman posted two goals last week and assisted on Meredith Buemi's game-winner in the team's win over Dayton Sunday in Indianapolis. Muir was also named the league's top player and to the 17-member Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week Sept. 5. Muir leads the Bulldogs with 17 points on the season and has either scored or assisted on 11 (six goals, five assists) of the team's 12 goals during the 2005 campaign. A LOOK BACK: The three matches on the Bulldogs' slate last week represented arguably the toughest stretch of the 2005 schedule. Butler traveled to in-state Big Ten opponents Purdue and Indiana and came away with 2-1 losses in both contests. The Bulldogs rebounded Sunday hosting 32nd-ranked Dayton. Senior Meredith Buemi took a feed from freshman Angie Muir and scored the match's only goal in the ninth minute. NOTHING GETS BY: Sophomore Annalise Larkin made four saves Sunday against Dayton and posted her third shutout of the season. Larkin also has a 4-2 record in six starts, allowing just six goals in 540 minutes of action. Larkin leads the Horizon League in goals against average (1.00 GAA), save percentage (.860), saves per game (6.17 spg) and is tied for second in shutouts with three.
SOLO LEADERBOARD: Freshman Angie Muir leads the Horizon League in shots (31), shots per game (3.88), points (17), points per game (2.12), goals (six), assists (five) and assists per game (0.62). The only offensive categories she doesn't lead in are goals per game where her six goals in eight matches (0.75 gpg) are second only to Loyola's Mary Dale's four in five matches (0.80 gpg) and game-winning goals where she is tied for fourth with one game-winner, one shy of the league lead. Muir's 2.12 points per game average puts her on pace to be in the top two on the Butler single-season points list by the end of the season. Amy Morrison had 45 points in 2002 and 38 points in 2001. Muir's 17 points this season is already five more than the points leader for all of the 2004 season (Kristin Harnest, 12 points). PRESEASON RESPECT: Horizon League coaches tabbed Butler to finish third in the upcoming women's soccer season, the League office announced last week. Selecting Butler to one of the top three spots was a safe pick for the league's coaches as the Bulldogs have finished at least third in the league standings in every season since 1994. UW-Milwaukee received 47 points in a poll voted on by the League's eight head coaches. The Panthers received five of a possible seven-first place votes. Detroit clinched second place with 45 points and three-first place votes. Butler followed with 35 points. THE COACH: Using a laidback demeanor off the field and a fierce competitiveness on it, head coach Woody Sherwood continues to keep the Bulldogs among the Horizon League elite. The 2005 campaign is the seventh for Sherwood at Butler, where his Bulldogs have posted a 59-58-8 record, including an impressive 23-11-1 mark in Horizon League play. In eight seasons as a head coach, Sherwood's teams own an 81-75-10 (.518) mark. UP NEXT: The Bulldogs take a week off once they return to Indianapolis before opening Horizon League action Sunday, Oct. 2 in the marquee match of the regular season when preseason league favorite UW-Milwaukee comes to town. The noon start is set for the Butler Bowl, which will play host to the Bulldogs' football game a day earlier in the debut of the new artificial turf in the stadium. QUICK SHOTS: Freshman Tierney Lanich missed both the Indiana and Dayton matches last week after suffering an injury against Purdue Tuesday. It's possible she could miss the rest of the 2005 season...eight of the Bulldogs' 10 shots against Dayton Sunday were on goal...senior Meredith Buemi has 15 career assists with her two helpers this season, which puts her just one shy of Krista Rott (2000-03) for fifth in Butler history. With 13 goals and 15 assists in her Butler career, Buemi is also just one point shy of tying Amy Pike (2000-03) for tenth on Butler's career points list (42). |
