Aug. 12, 2004

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - The Samford University soccer team was predicted to repeat as Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champions on Thursday as the Bulldogs received seven of eight possible first-place votes according to the league's nine head coaches. "This is a great honor for our team," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "It is especially rewarding because it is voted on by all of the other coaches, but the reality of it is that our job probably just got a little tougher. It's nice to receive this prediction, but I'm definitely more concerned about where we finish up at the end of the season." The OVC preseason ranking was conducted by the league office and determined by a vote of the conference's coaches, with the exception being that each head coach could not rank his or her own team. The total number of votes was then compiled for each school and the team with the most points earned the No. 1 ranking. The Bulldogs, who won the 2003 regular-season title, received seven first-place votes and a total of 63 points, while Eastern Illinois, the 2003 OVC Tournament champions, picked up the remaining pair of first-place nods and 56 total points. Southeast Missouri was predicted to finish third in the league with 48 points, while Jacksonville State accumulated 47 points for a fourth-place ranking. "This league is very talented and at the end of the day, anybody can beat anybody else, so it's going to be a challenging season," Yelton said. In 2003, its inaugural season in the conference, Samford posted a 12-4-5 overall record and a 7-1 conference mark en route to winning the 2003 OVC regular-season title. Yelton, the 2003 OVC Coach of the Year, boasts nine returning starters from a year ago, including top returnees in Kim Matthews (Colleyville, Texas) and Marian Wagner (Spring, Texas). "Winning the regular-season title last season was great for our team and for Samford University, and now the expectations have definitely changed for this program," said Yelton. "Last season was our first year in the league and not too many teams knew about us, but this year I would assume that every team that we play will give us their `A' game." Matthews, the OVC Freshman of the Year last season, was ranked in the top 10 in the league in a number of offensive categories, including points (16), goals (6) and game-winning goals (4). Wagner, a 2003 All-OVC Second-Team selection, also returns for the Bulldogs this season after finishing fifth in the league last year with 20 points and seven goals. "Both Kim and Marian came up huge for us last season," Yelton said. "Kim scored some really big goals for us and Marian had a lot to do with our success in conference. She scored a number of key goals and without the efforts of those two players, we don't win the championship last season and we wouldn't have been named the preseason champion this year." Eastern Illinois, which made its third-consecutive NCAA appearance last season, went 11-6-5 overall and registered a 6-0-2 mark in the league and claimed its fourth OVC tournament crown. The Samford soccer team will begin its fall competition on Saturday, Aug. 21, as the Bulldogs host the Vanderbilt Commodores in an exhibition match at 7 p.m., at Bulldog Field. Samford will then begin regular-season play the following weekend on the road against Conference USA opponents Southern Miss (Aug. 27) and Tulane (Aug. 29). Directly following their first road trip of the season, the Bulldogs are scheduled to host the perennially top-15 ranked Auburn Tigers at 7 p.m., on Thursday, Sept. 2. 2004 Ohio Valley Conference Predicted Order of Finish - Women's Soccer (As selected by the OVC women's soccer coaches) 1. Samford (7) 63 2. Eastern Illinois (2) 56 3. Southeast Missouri 48 4. Jacksonville State 47 5. Tennessee-Martin 36 6. Tennessee Tech 27 7. Murray State 24 8. Morehead State 12 9. Austin Peay 11 - First-place votes in ( )