Polaris Player News
June 10, 2007
Lady Statesmen among NCAA's Most Improved
By Daniel Hawthorne, Soccer Contact
CLEVELAND - Coming off a record setting 2006 season
for head coach Jim Allen and the Lady Statesmen soccer
program, which included an All-GSC selection in Bridget
Duke, Delta State was listed as one of the NCAA’s
Top 20 Most Improved Teams for the 2006 season.
In 2005, the Lady Statesmen finished a school-worst
0-19 and with the addition of some new players, quickly
turned the season around to 6-12-0, good for fifth
overall in the GSC and an improvement of 6.5 games.
St. Edward’s University (Austin, TX) improved
9.5 games finishing with a record of 17-3-2 compared
to last season’s 6-11-2.
Some of those key additions included a number of freshmen,
goalkeeper Allison Richardson, an Arlington, Texas
native, who posted a record-setting 1.91 goals against
average in 13 games on the year, and Bridget Duke,
who became the first Lady Statesmen selected to the
All-GSC squad. Duke, a St. Louis, Mo. native,
led the team in shots (44), shots on goal (24) and
tied for second with eight goals.
Transfer Shannon Brown also had a solid year finishing
the season second in points (16), shots (39) and goals
with (6).
Junior Catherine Sanford quickly made a name for herself
by coming off the bench and scoring big goals at the
right times. She led the team in points (17), goals
(8) and game-winning goals (3).
Coach Jim Allen and the Lady Statesmen hope to improve
even more in 2007. Fall camp opens in early August.
