Women's Soccer | 9/2/2014 9:59:00 PM
September 2, 2014-Emporia State will open their 14th season of intercollegiate soccer on Friday against East Central (Okla.) at the MIAA-GAC Challenge in Searcy, Arkansas. Bryan Sailer will begin his fourth season as the Hornets head coach after a break through year in 2013. The Hornets are 4-7-2 all-time in season openers but are 2-2-2 over the last six years, 1-1-1 under Sailer.
Overall the Hornets went 9-8-3 last season and advanced to the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament for the first time in school history. They are set to return six of their top seven scorers from last year as well as All-MIAA goal keeper Yadira Rivera. The nine wins were the most since 2004 and are the third most wins in a season in the program's history.
Emporia State was slated for ninth in the 2014 MIAA Coaches Preseason Poll. It is the highest preseason ranking for the Hornets since getting tabbed for eighth in 2011 in the then nine team MIAA.Last season Emporia State had wins over four of the teams ranked ahead of them in this year's poll, including a sweep of #5 Washburn in the regular season and a 3-0 victory over #4 Northeastern State in the MIAA Tournament. Last year the Hornets went 4-1-2 against the top five teams in this year's poll after being picked for 12th in last year's MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll.
The Hornets will open the season against East Central at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. This will be the eighth meeting between Emporia State and East Central with the series tied at 3-3-1 overall. The Hornets won the last meeting 1-0 on an Ashleigh Harris penalty kick to open up the 2012 season. The Tigers went 4-13 last season, dropping their final five matches.
Emporia State will wrap up the weekend against host Harding on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. It will be the first meeting between the Hornets and Bison. Harding finished last season with an 8-9-1 overall record and a 6-4-0 GAC record, winning its last five regular season matches.
After combining for seven wins in Coach Sailer's first two years (which was more than Emporia State had in the previous four years combined), he led the Hornets to their first winning season since 2005.
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