SMU vs. ECU
Tampa, Fla. | Corbett Stadium | American Women's Soccer Championship First Round
SMU 10-6-1, 5-4-0
ECU 10-5-2, 5-4-0 
 
Oct 31, 2018 – 6:00 p.m. CT
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TAMPA, Fla. (SMU) --- The Mustangs open postseason play on Wednesday as they face off with the ECU Pirates in the first round of The American Championship from USF's Corbett Stadium. The game will be broadcast on the American Digital Network.

SERIES HISTORY

--Wednesday will mark the 15th all-time meeting between the programs with the Mustangs holding a 7-5-2 edge in the career series. The two schools made the move over to the American Athletic Conference from Conference USA with ECU joining one year after SMU. ECU topped the Mustangs in North Carolina in the regular season meeting. The Pirates got up to a 2-0 lead in the second. Hailey Bishop's late goal made the deficit one but the Mustangs were unable to overcome for their first conference loss. Last season. Isabelle Nashmi scored the game winner in the 62^nd minute with a header goal off a free kick from Haley Thompson. Catie Brown had the shutout in net.
 
ABOUT ECU

ECU had a second-half resurgence after starting American play with three losses. The Pirates won five of their final six games to secure the fourth seed at the AAC Championship. ECU is led by Jenna Dages in the scoring column with six goals. In net, Melanie Stiles has 10 wins including six shutouts. Under first-year head coach Jason Hamilton, the Pirates have only been shutout once on the season.
 
QUICK FACTS


-The winner of Wednesday's match moves on to play the No. 1 seed, USF Bulls.  

-With the shutout victory over Houston on Friday, the Mustangs punched their ticket to the American Championship for the third consecutive season. SMU broke out for three goals including the game-winner from freshman Celiana Torres who also chipped in an assist in the contest.

-Junior Allie Thornton secured her third All-Conference honor after a leading the Mustangs with nine goals during her third season on the Hilltop. Thornton was named First-team All-Conference in her first season and second-team her sophomore season. The Arlington, Texas native scored the game-winner against No. 24 UCF on the road that helped propel the Mustangs into the conference tournament. Thornton's five-game winning goals was second in the conference.

-Freshman Courtney Sebazco was named Rookie Of The Year by the Conference, after a first year that included six goals and four assists while starting 16 games at midfield. Sebazco was also selected to the All-AAC second team and was a unanimous All-Rookie selection. This was SMU's first conference Rookie of the Year since Claire Oates in 2013.
 
-Redshirt Sophomore Katina Tsapos was selected second team All-AAC for her contributions to the Mustang's midfield. Tsapos rebounded after missing the 2017 season with an injury racking up the second most minutes on the team while contributing a goal and three assists.
 
-Freshman Celiana Torres was unanimously selected to the All-Rookie team. Torres led the Mustangs with 20 points on the season including seven goals and a team-high six assists.

-The Mustangs became the first AAC program to have two unanimous All-Rookie selections in the same season (Sebazco and Torres).

- SMU has advanced past their first-round opponent in all four previous trips to the American Championship.

-SMU has converted the second most PKs in the country with five. The Mustangs six penalties attempts are double the next highest total in the conference.


-The Mustangs have excelled in non-Sunday games having posted a 7-1 record. The one loss came in a 3-2 home loss to Tulsa.

-Last season, the Mustangs topped Cincinnati in the first round of the tournament before falling to USF in the second round.
 
-With her PK goal against Cincinnati, redshirt senior Vanessa Valadez set the SMU Career mark for most PK goals breaking the previous mark of six set by Kim Harvey. Valadez added another in the matchup with Tulsa and has yet to miss a PK (8-for-8).

-In American Athletic Conference play, senior Catie Brown holds nearly every Mustang goalkeeping record. Brown has compiled a 15-11-2 record across four seasons. The Mustang program has won 22 games in AAC play with Brown in goal for 15 of 22.
 
-The Mustangs are outscoring their opponents 19-6 in the first half.  The team has scored two or more goals in the first 20 minutes of four of their 17 games. Additionally, SMU has scored 11 goals in the first quarter (22:30) of games and have conceded once (against UConn). Against FIU, SMU scored twice before the five-minute mark, the quickest to a pair of goals for the Mustang since 2016 against Tulsa.

-Last Thursday against UCF, the Mustangs got their first points of the season when they fail to score more than one goal. SMU was 0-4-0 when scoring less than two goals.
 
-Junior Allie Thornton leads the Mustangs with nine goals. The striker added number nine in the win over UCF including her team-leading fourth game-winning goal.  Thornton joined teammate Vanessa Valadez as active Mustangs with 20-career goals when she scored in the first half against UConn. 

-Freshman Celiana Torres has had an impressive start to her career in the scoring column. The Chicago, native is second on the team with seven goals and tops the Mustangs with six assists.
 
-Senior Goalkeeper Catie Brown recorded an impressive streak of 355:33 minutes in net without conceding a goal, a streak that dated back to the draw against TCU and ended on a 15^th minute goal from UConn. The streak included a PK save by Brown in the road contest against Northern Colorado.  Brown was named to The American Honor Roll after the Mustangs' road trip to Colorado.
 
-Freshman have accounted for 13 of the Mustangs 35 goals and 10 of the 27 assists. 
 
-With the win against UConn on Sep. 23, SMU clinched a winning season at Westcott Field for the fourth consecutive season. In 24 seasons at Westcott, the Mustangs have finished .500 or better in 23 seasons, with three perfect seasons.
 
-Head Coach Chris Petrucelli won his 400^th career game on the Sunday Sep. 23 in the win over UConn. In his seventh season at the helm of the Mustangs, Petrucelli has 63 wins while on the Hilltop.  Only nine coaches have reached the 400-win mark in Division 1, including just seven other active coaches: Anson Dorance (UNC), Jerry Smith (Santa Clara), G. Guerrieri (Texas A&M), Becky Burleigh (Florida),  Randy Waldrum (Pittsburgh) and Steve Swanson (Virginia).
 
-The league's coaches correctly picked in their preseason poll that the Mustangs would finish fifth in the American Athletic Conference and that junior Allie Thornton would be named All-Conference.