Wednesday, October 5 • Laredo • DustDevil Soccer Field
St. Mary's (8-2-1, 2-2-1) at Texas A&M International (3-5-3, 0-3-3) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, October 8 • San Antonio • Sigma Beta Chi Field
Oklahoma Christian (3-4-4, 1-3-2) at St. Mary's • 1 p.m.
Split Week: St. Mary's looks to keep its tough defense going with a match at Texas A&M International on Wednesday before hosting Oklahoma Christian on Saturday. The Rattlers have shut out the last two opponents, bringing their season total to six.
One More: A win this week would match last season's win total of nine and two wins would give the Rattlers 10 victories, tying for the most in a season since the 2005 team won 2013. In 2006, 2010 and 2015 the teams won 10 matches each and the record for wins in the Division II era is 13 by both 2002 and 2005.
Getting It Done: Fifth-year senior D Megan Copeland kicked her fourth game-winning goal of the season in the 2-0 victory at Eastern New Mexico on Saturday. Copeland took a corner kick in the eighth minute that sailed into the upper left corner of the net. Her four game-winners tie for the second-most in St. Mary's single-season history and is one off the mark of five by Kyle Hyslop in 2005. Copeland also has seven career game-winning goals, which is tied for fourth in school history. Hyslop had 13 from 2005-08.
Series History: St. Mary's holds a commanding 30-6-1 edge in the all-time series with Texas A&M International and is 15-3 in Laredo. The Rattlers also own a 10-3-1 series lead against Oklahoma Christian. The two teams played to their first tie a season ago, 1-1 in Oklahoma City.
Lone Star Leaders: St. Mary's leads the Lone Star Conference in points per game (6.73), total goals (27) and total points (72). The team is also second in total assists (20), shots on goal/game (8.18) and scoring offense (2.45). Individually, senior Megan Copeland ranks second in game-winners (4), assists (4) and senior Juni Ejere is third in goals/game (0.80), points/game (1.90) and total goals (8).
Keep Your Eye On the Goal: The Rattlers currently have three players who rank in the top 10 in the Lone Star Conference in shot accuracy. Senior Juni Ejere is ranked third (.625), sophomore Eliza Merrion is sixth (.591) and senior Megan Copeland is ninth (.577).
Best Start Ever: The 6-0 start to the season is the best start in school history, bettering a 5-0 start by three different teams.
It's An Honor: Senior Juni Ejere was named the Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week each of the first two weeks of the season, while fellow senior Megan Copeland earned Defensive Player of the Week honors.Â
Goals-a-Plenty: St. Mary's has scored 27 times in the first 11 games of the season with 10 different players finding the back of the net. Senior Juni Ejere leads the team with eight, while Megan Copeland has five, and Eliza Merrion has three. Copeland also leads the way with four assists, while Merrion and Ejere each have three.
