Game Notes In PDF Format

Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 - 4 p.m. - Sun Belt Game
North Texas Mean Green (7-3-1, 2-0-0 SBC) at
ULM Warhawks (5-5-1, 0-2-0 SBC)
ULM Soccer Complex (500) - Monroe, La.
Series History: North Texas leads 4-1-0
Last Meeting: W, 4-0 (10/1/2010) at NT

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011 - 1 p.m. - Sun Belt Game
North Texas Mean Green at
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns (4-6-1, 0-2-0 SBC)
Ragin' Cajuns Track/Soccer Facility (5,000) - Lafayette, La.
Series History: North Texas leads 14-0-0
Last Meeting: W, 4-0 (10/3/2010) at NT

North Texas Looks To Continue 2-0-0 SBC Start
North Texas goes to Louisiana this week to take on two Sun Belt foes, in what is their first road contests of the 2011 Sun Belt Season. The Mean Green will take on ULM & Louisiana-Lafayette, both whom North Texas has historically dominated, with 4-1 and 14-0 series records, respectively. North Texas won its first two Sun Belt games at home, defeating 2010 SBC Tournament Champ Middle Tennessee 3-0 and the team that knocked NT out of the Sun Belt Tournament, Western Kentucky by a 2-1 score. Michelle Young scored three goals over the weekend for the Mean Green, putting her back atop the Sun Belt scoring charts.

North Texas' Offense Clicking
North Texas has had a strong offensive attack so far this season, ranking first in the Sun Belt Conference with 31 goals, and 13th in Division 1 with 2.82 goals per game.

All We Do Is Win, No Matter What
North Texas has never had a losing season in their 16 years as a program. Only North Carolina (29 seasons), William & Mary (29), Portland (25), Notre Dame (23), Stanford (23) and Penn State (17) have active streaks of more consecutive winning seasons entering this year.

Forever Young
Junior Michelle Young was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on Sept. 27 for her three goals against Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. She leads the Sun Belt Conference and ranks 25th in the nation with eight goals this season. She had a four goal, three assist weekend against Texas Southern and Grambling. She scored her first career hat trick at Texas Southern on Aug. 26, becoming the first North Texas player to have one since Aug. 27, 2010, and was the first of two straight hat tricks for the Mean Green. On Aug. 28, her three assists against Grambling made her the first NT player since Kendall Juett on Oct. 13, 2006 to have three or more assists in a game.

Jackie Says No!
Freshman goalkeeper Jackie Kerestine did what the USA Today named as one of the "Hardest 10 Things To Do In Sports," by saving a penalty kick against Middle Tennessee, on the first spot kick she faced in her career. North Texas keepers have had recent success stopping penalty takers; only one of the last four penalties against NT has resulted in a goal.

Tall Tale
Freshman goalkeeper Jackie Kerestine is the tallest player in the Sun Belt Conference at 6-1. Kerestine is taller than every player on North Texas' women's basketball team, which makes her the third-tallest female athlete currently at North Texas, behind volleyball players Courtney Windham and Hallie McDonald.

Home Is Where The Wins Are
North Texas is 5-0-1 at home this season, continuing their success in Denton. North Texas is riding an 11 game Sun Belt winning streak at the Mean Green Soccer Complex, and is 15-1 in their last 16 home conference games. North Texas is currently unbeaten in its last 11 and is 16-1-2 in their last 19 games at home. North Texas is one of just three schools (also: North Carolina, 5 times, and Notre Dame, 4 times) in the nation to have two unbeaten streaks at home of 23 games or more in NCAA history. The Mean Green went unbeaten for 24 straight home games from Oct. 3, 1999 until Oct. 11, 2002, the 12th longest streak, NCAA history, then had a streak from Oct. 3, 2004 and didn't end until Oct. 22, 2007 that covered 23 straight games and is the 13th longest home unbeaten streak in NCAA history.

All Of The Lights
North Texas is 4-0-0 in night games this season, beating Texas Southern, SMU, Sam Houston and Western Kentucky.

North Texas vs. ULM
North Texas is 4-1-0 against the Warhawks, having outscored ULM by an average of 4.2 goals to 1.0 goals in those five games. North Texas has won its last two meetings against the Warhawks 4-0, although the last two meetings have been in Denton.

North Texas vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
North Texas is a perfect 14-0-0 against the Ragin' Cajuns, having outscored Louisiana-Lafayette 41-8 over the 14 games, scoring an average of 2.9 goals to the Ragin' Cajuns' 0.6 goals per game. North Texas has only allowed one goal to Lousiana-Lafayette in a conference game since 2004, although the Mean Green have conceded goals to the Ragin' Cajuns in the conference tournament during that span.

North Texas and the Sun Belt
Overall, the Mean Green are 95-31-11 in Sun Belt games.

Goalkeeper Heritage
Jackie Kerestine has taken over the goalkeeper position, replacing Mandy Hall, who finished her North Texas career as the career leader in shutouts and saves. However, this is not the the first time Kerestine has helped replace Hall--both attended Colleyville Heritage High School, where Hall was keeper from 2005-07, and Kerestine from 2009-11. Both were named first team selections on the Fort Worth Star Telegram Super Team as high school seniors, with Kerestine being named Player of the Year. Kerestine led Colleyville Heritage to 19 straight shutouts as a senior, which spanned from January to overtime of the state title game.

Moment For Life
Senior Nikki Crocco is having a career year for the Mean Green with career-highs of six goals, which ranks fourth in the Sun Belt and 50th in the nation, and four assists this season. She was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on Sept. 6 for her outstanding performance against SMU. Crocco scored both of North Texas' goals against the 8th-ranked team in the Central Region, as the Mean Green beat their rivals 2-1, their first cross-town victory since 2005. Crocco stole the ball from the SMU keeper with 3:07 remaining and coolly put it away for the game winner, the first game winner in the last ten minutes of regulation for NT since 2009. Crocco also stole the ball from the keeper against Middle Tennessee, and gave North Texas a lead with 28 minutes left for the game-winner on Sept. 25. Crocco had only scored three goals in her career at North Texas before a two-game surge, which saw her score her first career hat trick on Aug. 28 then two more against SMU, and only three more at Arkansas before transferring.

Ramblin' About Grambling
North Texas had its biggest win in 11 years with an 11-0 victory over Grambling on Aug. 28. The 11 goals scored by North Texas are the most the Mean Green have scored in a single game since Oct. 8, 2000, when it beat Arkansas State 11-0, and tied for the third-most in program history. The game shatters the record for goals scored at the Mean Green Soccer Complex, which was 8, set most recently in 2010. Nikki Crocco scored a hat trick for the Mean Green, which with Michelle Young's hat trick on Aug. 26, marks the first time that North Texas has had hat tricks in back-to-back games since 2005, when Heather Hutyra scored hat tricks against SMU then Grambling.

Scarfone's Assist Rate
Junior midfielder Ellen Scarfone has played in every game so far this season, and has only seen limited, but remarkably effective, minutes in those games. She has picked up four assists and two goals in 11 appearances, which would average out to 0.78 assists per 90 minutes. Just for comparison's sake, 0.78 assists per game would rank 6th in Division 1.

Preseason Picks
Sophomore defender Kelsey Hodges and junior midfielder Ellen Scarfone were named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference team by the league's 12 coaches. Hodges led North Texas with nine goals in 2010, including a hat trick in her first career game. Scarfone was a 2010 All-Sun Belt pick and returns after a seven goal, nine assist season in 2010.

Rank and File
North Texas entered the NSCAA Regional Polls for the first time this season on Sept. 5 with the 10th spot in the South Region. North Texas took down then-8th ranked team in the Central Region, SMU on Sept. 2, with a 2-1 win. Baylor, who was ranked 9th in the Central Region, knocked North Texas out of the regional rankings after Baylor won 2-0 at Baylor on Sept. 11.

2011 NT vs. Regionally Ranked Teams
Date Opponent Result
9/2/11 #8-C SMU W, 2-1
9/11/11 #9-C Baylor L, 0-2

Scoreboard Watching
Highlighted results from NTs' non-league opponents:
SMU upset No. 19 UCF 1-0, then downed Southern Miss 3-1 ... Baylor defeated Central No. 5 Texas 1-0 and beat Weber State 1-0 ... Cal State Fullerton beat West No. 3 San Diego 2-0 then drew UNLV 1-1 ... Houston was edged 2-1 by No. 9 Memphis before beating UAB 2-1