Women's Soccer Predicted to Finish Sixth in Lone Star Conference

RICHARDSON, Texas – The St. Mary's Women's Soccer team, according to coaches, sports information personnel and media in the Lone Star Conference will finish sixth in the standings in 2022.
 
The Rattlers, coming off a 9-7-2 season and a trip to the Lone Star Tournament Quarterfinals, were chosen sixth in the 13-team league the conference announced Wednesday.
 
DBU was picked to win and received 24 of the 35 first-place votes, while Angelo State, West Texas A&M, Midwestern State and Texas Woman's rounded out the top five. 
 
StMU returns 17 letterwinners off last year's team, including fifth-year seniors Megan Copeland (San Antonio) and Kylie Von Holle (Midland, Texas). Copeland is a two-time Lone Star All-Conference and All-Tournament selection, as well as a Second-Team All-Region pick from a season ago. Von Holle was named Player of the Week last March and played in 16 of the team's 18 games last fall.
 
The Rattlers also return the league's saves leader in sophomore Rebecca Difronzo (Bari, Italy) and First-Team All-Conference selection Juni Ejere (Weatherford, Texas). As a true freshman, Difronzo led the tough Lone Star Conference with a 0.842 saves percentage, allowing only 18 goals in 18 games with 96 saves. She ranked fifth in goals against average (1.022) and fourth in saves per game (5.33). Ejere led the Rattlers in total scoring with eight goals and two assists for 18 points. She scored one goal in four of the last five games of last season.
 
Copeland, Difronzo and Ejere were all named Players to Watch in the Lone Star Conference this season.
 
St. Mary's has two exhibition games remaining, playing at Texas State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and hosting Trinity on Sunday at 2 p.m. The regular season begins on August 25 when the Rattlers host Southern Nazarene at 7 p.m.
 
2022 LSC Women's Soccer Preseason Poll

Rank	School	1st	Total
1	DBU	24	434
2	Angelo State	10	388
3	West Texas A&M	1	368
4	Midwestern State		363
5	Texas Woman's		323
6	St. Mary's		274
7	St. Edward's		251
8	Lubbock Christian		212
9	UT Tyler		171
10	Oklahoma Christian		163
11	Texas A&M International		117
12	UT Permian Basin		77
13	Eastern New Mexico		44