UTEP Miners

Nov. 11-13, 2005
Mike A. Myers Stadium
Austin, Texas

First Round Friday, Nov. 11
Game 1: California (14-3-2) vs. Rice (13-6-1), 3:00 p.m.
Game 2: Texas (11-8-1) vs. UTEP (19-3-1), 5:30 p.m.

Second Round Sunday, Nov. 13
Game 3: Cal-Rice winner vs. Texas-UTEP winner, 1:00 p.m.
All times are Mountain

Records: UTEP enters the NCAA Tournament with a 19-3-1 overall record. The Miners went 6-2-1 in C-USA play.

Rankings: UTEP is ranked 14th in the Soccer Buzz Central Region poll.

Head Coach: Kevin Cross is in his fifth year as the head coach at UTEP and has a 62-30-4 overall record. He started at UTEP as an assistant coach in 1997 -- the program’s second year -- and has a combined record of 100-66-9 in nine seasons.

NCAA Tournament: UTEP is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Miners are 5-5-1 all-time in postseason play. UTEP has appeared in two conference championship games in the last four years (2002 and 2005).

A Quick Look at the Miners
* UTEP is the only team in Conference USA with six players who have scored at least 13 points and five or more goals.
* The Miners have shutout eight opponents this season and 15 of their last 38 ... UTEP has just one postseason shutout in 11 all-time games ... on the flip side, UTEP was held scoreless for the first time all year on Sunday in the C-USA Championship ... the last time the Miners failed to net a goal came on Oct. 17, 2004, at Rice - a span of 27 games.
* UTEP has outscored its opponents 25-10 in the first half and 39-18 in the second ... since conference play began on Sept. 30, the Miners have a 9-7 edge in the first 45 and a solid 21-12 second-half margin.
* UTEP is 6-10-1 all-time in the month of November and 2-1 in 2005.
* UTEP is 13-2 in day games in 2005 ... both losses came at Rice ... the Miners are 6-1-1 in night games.
* UTEP is 4-3 all-time in postseason games played in the Lone Star State.
* UTEP is 3-for-5 on penalty kicks this year. Jami Tullius is 2-for-4, while Kristin Wernimont converted her lone attempt against Utah Valley State.
* UTEP’s roster features 12 players from the state of Texas ... senior Kia Sams is the only one from Austin but nine players are from cities within a 3-hour drive of the state capitol ... sophomore F Cara Nordin will turn 19-years-old on Friday.
* The Miners will be without the services of two key players for the remainder of the season ... junior D Kelli Yeamans tore her left ACL at Memphis (10/2) while sliding into the post to deflect a ball ... she underwent surgery on Wednesday and did not travel to Austin ... sophomore F Brandi Aston is out after tearing her right ACL and MCL in the C-USA semifinal win over UCF (11/4) ... she tore her left ACL as a freshman at Cisco JC in 2003.

Scouting Texas
Series: UTEP leads 1-0
Last meeting: UTEP won 2-1 in ot -- 9/1/98 in El Paso
Overview: The Longhorns enter the NCAA Tournament with an 11-8-1 overall record and a 6-4 mark in Big 12 play ... Texas is making its fifth appearance in the tournament and has a 2-4 record ... UT advanced to the round of 16 a year ago before losing at Portland.

Sophomore MF Caitlin Kennedy ranks among the team leaders in points (1st, 16), goals (t-1st, 6) and game-winning goals (t-1st, 2). Additionally, sophomore F Kelsey Carpenter ranks second in points (15) and is tied with Kennedy in goals (6) and GWG (2). Carpenter has missed the last three games after suffering an injury at Kansas.

In goal, true freshman Dianna Pfenninger has posted a 1.04 GAA with four shutouts and 3.6 saves per game.

Scouting Cal (possible second round opponent)
Series: 0-0
Last meeting: n/a
Overview: Sixth-ranked Cal comes to Austin with a 14-3-2 record and the nation’s fifth-rated defense in terms of goals-against average at 0.397. The Golden Bears are making their 13th tournament appearance and boast an 8-13 mark.

Senior F Liz Eisenberg leads the team in points (23), goals (10) and game-winning goals (6) for the second-consecutive season. Eisenberg, senior F Dania Cabello (6 goals) and senior MF Lindsay Clute (5 goals) have combined for 21 of Cal’s 35 goals.

Ashley Sulprizio ranks sixth nationally in GAA at 0.38 on seven goals in 1,645 minutes. She has registered nine shutouts in 2005 and 19 in her career.

Scouting Rice (possible second round opponent)
Series: Rice leads 6-2
Last meeting: Rice won 3-0 -- 11/6/2005 in Houston
Overview: Rice is flying high after four consecutive shutout wins - including three in the C-USA Tournament - as it carries a 13-6-1 record into its second straight NCAA Tournament.

Freshman F Caitlin Robbins has paced the Owls all season with a team-high 35 points and 14 goals. Classmate Anne Candee ranks second in points (21), first in assists (9) and third in goals (6).

Freshman GK Adriene Giese has a 0.92 GAA in 1753 minutes in goal - just over 29 hours. She was named the Defensive MVP of the C-USA Tournament after posting three shutouts while making eight saves.

Eight different Miners can be found amongst the Conference USA leaders in various categories
Melissa Abraham: 2nd-shots (96), tied 2nd-points (35), 1st-goals (16), tied 8th-game-winning goals (3); Brandi Aston: tied 6th-shots (73), tied 16th-assists (5); Angie Kleinfelder: tied 16th-assists (5); Cara Nordin: 4th-shots (77), 9th-points (31), tied 4th-assists (7), tied 1st-game-winning goals (5); ; Brittany Popoff: 2nd-goals against average (1.04), 3rd-saves (104), 5th-shutouts (5), 1st-save percentage (.819); Kaletia Roberts: tied 9th-assists (6); Kia Sams: tied 2nd-assists (9); Jami Tullius: 8th-shots (69), 4th-points (34), tied 2nd-goals (15), tied 1st-game-winning goals (5).

Here is how UTEP ranks as a team in the various categories
UTEP leads the league in shots (460, 20.0 per game), points (185, 8.0 per game), goals (67, 2.91 per game) and offsides (57, 2.5 per game) ... the Miners are second in assists (51, 2.22 per game) and fouls (264, 11.5 per game).

C-USA Earns Three Bids in 2005
For just the second time in league history, Conference USA will be represented by three teams in the NCAA Tournament ... Rice received the conference’s automatic bid, while SMU and UTEP earned at-large berths ... in 2002, Charlotte, Cincinnati and Marquette each earned bids.

UTEP In The National Rankings
UTEP is also among the national statistical leaders entering the weekend ... as a team, the Miners are ninth in won-lost-tied percentage (.848) and seventh in scoring offense (2.91 goals per game).

UTEP Making First-Ever NCAA Tournament Appearance
UTEP is one of 11 schools in the 2005 NCAA Tournament making its first appearance in the field ... the others are UC-Riverside, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Hofstra, Iowa State, Mississippi Valley, Saint Louis, Samford, Valparaiso, Western Carolina ... one ironic side bar to that list is that UC-Riverside is coached by Veronica O’Brien ... O’Brien started the UTEP program from scratch in 1996 and guided the Miners for five years before leaving to start the Highlander program in 2001.

Miners’ 19 Wins Rank Second In NCAA
The school-record 19 wins entering the NCAA Tournament are tied for the second-most among the 64 teams in the tournament ... only North Carolina’s 20 wins surpass the 19 posted by UTEP, Notre Dame and Penn State.

23 Games Played Tops In NCAA
In addition to the 19 wins, UTEP’s 23 games played are tied for the most in the nation with Western Carolina and Wisconsin.

UTEP Against The 2005 NCAA Field
UTEP is 1-3 against teams in the 2005 NCAA Tournament (1-0 vs. North Texas, 0-1 vs. SMU and 0-2 vs. Rice) ... UTEP’s three losses this season were to tournament teams.

UTEP Versus Big 12 Schools
UTEP is 6-6 all-time against members of the Big 12 Conference ... the Miners are 0-1 vs. Baylor, 0-1 v. Kansas, 1-1 vs. Oklahoma State, 1-0 vs. Texas and 4-3 vs. Texas Tech.

UTEP Versus Texas Schools
UTEP is 25-31-0 all-time against schools from the state of Texas ... in 2005, the Miners are 6-3-0.

Miners Loving The Corner Kick
Entering the NCAA Tournament, UTEP has tallied 11 goals off of corner kicks ... in fact, 10 have come in the last 11 games ... in last week’s Conference USA Tournament, UTEP scored three goals off corners in a 5-4 win over Memphis and another in the 5-1 victory over top-seeded UCF.

Popoff Named To Team Of The Season
Sophomore GK Brittany Popoff was named to the Team of the Season by Top Drawer Soccer ... the Westbank, British Columbia native was joined on the third team by fellow keepers Valerie Henderson of UCLA and Aly Winget of North Carolina.

Three Miners Named Academic All-District VI
UTEP sophomores Angie Kleinfelder, Brittany Popoff and Jami Tullius were each named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI University Division Women’s Soccer team last week ... Popoff and Tullius were named to the first team, while Kleinfelder was named to the second team ... Popoff and tullius each carry 4.0 GPAs in mechanical engineering ... Kleinfelder is an undergraduate studies major with a 3.8 GPA ... since 2002, UTEP has placed seven student-athletes on the all-district teams with two being named Academic All-America (Holly Cohen in 2002 and Heather Clark in 2004).

Miners Finish Inaugural C-USA Season In Third Place
After nine years in the Western Athletic Conference, UTEP was one of five schools to join Conference USA this season (Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UCF) ... UTEP was picked to finish sixth by the league’s coaches but spent the better part of the season in first before finishing tied for third at 6-2-1 ... UTEP is 34-32-6 (.514) all-time in conference play but 21-10-2 (.667) in the last four seasons with two second-place finishes.

And Then There Were Two
With its loss to SMU on Oct. 14, UTEP dropped out of the ranks of the undefeated teams ... at the time, only Penn State and Portland were also undefeated (both schools are still undefeated at 19-0-1 and 18-0-1) ... in 2002, UTEP started the season 12-0 and was the second-to-last team to lose its perfect record, as Princeton opened with 12-consecutive victories but didn’t lose until two weekends after the Miners.

Home Win Streak Ends At 17
UTEP saw its school-record 17-game home win streak come to an end on Oct. 14 with a 2-1 loss to SMU ... the old record of 10 consecutive wins at University Field was set during th 2002-03 seasons ... UTEP finished its 2005 home schedule at 11-1 ... prior to the SMU loss, the Miners’ last defeat came in the 2004 season opener 3-2 double overtime loss to Texas State.

UTEP Likes The Free Soccer
UTEP has been involved in four overtime games this season, going 3-0-1 ... the Miners have not lost a game involving extra time since Sept. 24, 2004 - a span of seven games.

Boakye, Roberts and Sams Form Winningest Senior Class in UTEP History
UTEP seniors Heather Boakye, Kaletia Roberts and Kia Sams enter the NCAA Tournament with a career record of 59-19-2 -- making them the winningest class in UTEP history ... below is a list of each of the four-year classes to pass through UTEP.

Winning
ClassRecordPct.
2002-0559-19-2.750
2001-0444-28-3.613
2000-0338-34-2.527
1997-0038-36-5.508
1999-0235-34-5.507
1996-9934-36-7.487
1998-0132-37-6.467