Miami women's soccer team emphasizes defense

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Updated 2:12 AM Thursday, September 3, 2009

Coach Bobby Kramig knew the key to a successful season for his Miami University women’s soccer team would be defense.

So far, so good.

Two games into the season the 1-1 RedHawks have allowed only one goal. They lost 1-0 in the opener at Louisville, a team that beat Miami 3-1 last year, and then scored a 3-0 victory over Eastern Kentucky in their home opener on Sunday, Aug. 23.

“I think we’ve made great strides defensively,” Kramig said. “That’s going to be the foundation of everything we do this year, being sound defensively. I can’t stress enough the importance of that. The defense is going to be the springboard of our offense.

“Last year we were behind early in the games so many times,” he said. “Always playing catch up, always trying to come from behind, we can’t get ourselves into those situations this year.”

Senior Krista Pace recorded the shutout against Eastern Kentucky, the ninth of her career, which leaves her one short of the Miami career record held by Katie Karlander (2001-02).

Miami is in the midst of a stretch of 13 straight off days. NCAA scheduling restrictions forced the RedHawks to cancel their home game against Youngstown State, slated for Friday, Sept. 4, and their next match will be Sunday, Sept. 6 at Eastern Illinois.

An impressive rally

Miami’s volleyball team found itself down one set and trailing 10-5 in the second against Alabama in their final match at the Active Ankle Challenge in St. Louis last week, but stormed back to win 24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 25-19.

Senior Maria Leahy, playing in her hometown, led the RedHawks with 16 kills and 17 digs.

Miami (1-3) will play at the IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational in Indianapolis on Saturday and Sunday against Northwestern, Western Kentucky and IUPUI.

The RedHawks will make their home debut at the Miami Best Western Invitational Sept. 11-12. The opponents will be St. John’s, Troy and Pacific.

Coming up

Field hockey: Miami (0-2) plays at 1 p.m. Saturday at Louisville.

Cross country: The men’s and women’s teams open the season at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at the Dayton Flyer 5K Invitational in Kettering.

Men’s golf: The RedHawks will open at the Gopher Invitational Sept. 13-14 in Minneapolis.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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