Sept. 4, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University's women's soccer squad will host its fourth annual Thundering Herd Nike Invitational this weekend at Sam Hood Field beginning Friday evening and closing Sunday afternoon.

"This is our first weekend home of the 2008 season," Marshall's interim head coach Kevin Long said. "I know we all want to play well in front of our home crowd."

Competition will begin with Mount St. Mary's University and Radford University kicking off Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. The Mount enters the contest with a 0-3-0 record while the Highlanders remain unbeaten at 1-0-1 so far this season. Radford holds a 1-0 record against Mount St. Mary's dating back to a 3-0 advantage in 1997. The Mount will be considered the home squad on the scoreboard.

In Tuesday's match, the Mount fell to American University, 3-0, at Emmitsburg, Md. The Highlanders marked their first tie in 59 games last weekend with a 2-2 draw against Evansville at Radford, Va.

"This is the first weekend we will play two games back-to-back," Coach Long continued. "I am very interested to see if we can sustain the level of play we have demonstrated in our first two games over a tough and more demanding two-game weekend."

The Herd will take the field under the lights following the match against the Mount and the Highlanders with kick-off set for 8 p.m. against The Citadel. Marshall enters the weekend with a two-game winning streak at 2-0-0 while the Bulldogs stand 0-2-0 so far for the season. Friday evening's match will be a first meeting between the schools.

"The Thundering Herd Invitational is our team's first home games so we are all very excited to play in front of our fans, families, and friends," Marshall's third year senior co-captain Erin Johnson (Mansfield, Ohio) stated about her last invitational. "This invitational is an excellent opportunity to host and compete against some very competitive and talented teams."

The Herd had its first shutout of the season against Mount St. Mary's last weekend with a 4-0 victory at Emmitsburg, Md., while Charleston Southern took a 4-0 decision over The Citadel, Monday, at Ladson, S.C.

"Both of our opponents have demonstrated that they can be dangerous on attack and they both will be stubborn on defense," Coach Long added. "We have our full roster for the first time of the season and I am looking forward to the games throughout the weekend."

Festivities will resume Sunday morning when The Citadel challenge Mount St. Mary's at 11:30 a.m. The morning match will be a first-time meeting between the schools. The Bulldogs will be the home team on the scoreboard.

The Herd and the Highlanders will close the invitational at 2 p.m. In 2006, Marshall and Radford faced each other for the first-time, where the Highlanders took a close 1-0 decision in late September at Radford, Va.

GameTracker will be available for all four matches by clicking the Marshall women's soccer schedule.

Herd fans can check out and purchase photos from the 2007 women's soccer season at http://herdsportsphotos.exposuremanager.com/ under "2007 Women's Soccer."