Tag: Arkansas soccer

Arkansas soccer debuts at No. 8 in preseason poll

For the second consecutive year, Arkansas will begin in the top 10 of the preseason polls in soccer.

The Arkansas soccer team will begin in the top 10 for the second consecutive season after making the Elite 8 a year ago.

United Soccer Coaches Association released its poll on Wednesday and the Razorbacks were eighth.

Arkansas will start in the top 15 for the fourth straight year. The regular season begins August 17 against Arkansas State.

Four of their opponents are also in the poll with the Razorbacks, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Alabama and Clemson.

Arkansas and Arkansas State will meet to kick off 2023 season

The Razorbacks and Red Wolves will meet in 2023…to host a free community event the night before their season-opening soccer game.

After years of fans clamoring for the two in-state programs to meet, they will finally collide – on a different kind of “football” field in 2023, at least.

The Arkansas soccer team will open their 2023 season against Arkansas State on Thursday, Aug. 17. Last week, the club announced that the Razorbacks and Red Wolves would team up to host a free community clinic on Wednesday, the day before their matchup.

The clinic will will take place at Razorback Field from 5:45-6:45 p.m. and is open to children aged 6-12. Technical soccer training with players of both programs will be featured at the event. Fans can register here for the free event.

While the two biggest universities in the state of Arkansas have avoided regularly facing each other for some time now, events like these show what has been missing. Not only do we get to witness a fun in-state rivalry, but the community, local fans and the entire state benefit from both school crossing paths.

Here’s to hoping we see more stuff like this involving the bigger sports in the near future.

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Arkansas soccer announces 2023 schedule

Razorback soccer will return to action in August to kick off the 2023-2024 athletic year.

Mark your calendars.

The Arkansas Razorback soccer team is set to make a comeback and launch the 2023-24 season in August.

Last season, the Razorbacks reached the Elite Eight, only to lose to eventual champions Florida State. The Razorbacks return 69 percent of their offensive production from last season while adding a very good transfer in Morgan White from Marshall. 

The season will include a challenging schedule of 17 regular matches, including two exhibitions against nine NCAA Tournament teams from 2022, two College Cup teams, three Elite Eight teams, and three league champions.

The exhibition versus Kansas State will be the first match played on Razorback Field’s new pitch.

The field has undergone several changes, including installing a new drainage system and fresh sod from the same farm that provides grass for Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas will play against four non-conference Power 5 teams, the highest number of such teams they’ve faced since 2014. The SEC Tournament will take place in Pensacola, Florida, for the second consecutive year. The tournament will feature the top 10 teams in the league and will run from October 29th to November 5th.

“The schedule meets all of our objectives. It prepares us for SEC play, and we get outside of our comfort zone, which gives us an opportunity to grow, and it sets us up for the postseason per the parameters they lay out. If you want to be a championship program, you have to play a top schedule, and this certainly seems to fit that.” – Arkansas Razorback soccer head coach, Colby Hale

Razorback women’s soccer adds all-conference forward

After spending four seasons at Marshall University, a graduate transfer, Morgan White, will play her final season of college soccer for Arkansas.

After a successful spring season, the Razorbacks received some good news, landing a star forward out of the Sun Belt Conference.

After spending four seasons at Marshall University, a graduate transfer, Morgan White, will play her final season of college soccer for Arkansas.

As a senior, White finished with the second-most goals (9), the second-most points (17), the fourth-most goals per game (0.47), and the fourth-most points per game (1.16) in the Sun Belt Conference earning First Team All-Sun Belt and United Soccer Coaches Southeast Region Third Team honors.

“Morgan White has electric pace,” head coach Colby Hale said about the star forward. “She indicated in her recruitment that she wanted to test herself against some of the best players in the world and be part of what we are building. She is an exciting addition to our program.”

Adding White gives the Hogs another scoring threat after losing last season’s points leader Jessica De Filippo. Her career at Marshall ended with 55 game appearances, 45 of them starts, accumulating 41 points, 15 goals, and 11 assists.

Arkansas soccer falls to Florida State 1-0 in Elite Eight

For the second consecutive season, Arkansas soccer’s season ends in the Elite Eight.

Arkansas soccer’s season has ended in the Elite Eight for a second consecutive year after a 1-0 loss to Florida State on Saturday.

The No. 1 Seminoles (17-2-3) and No. 3 Razorbacks (13-4-5) were tied for until the 53rd minute when Florida State forward Jenna Nighswonger’s corner kick was unintentionally knocked into the goal by an Arkansas defender.

Florida State led the Hogs in total shots (13-11) and shots on goal (9-5) while controlling 54% of the possession during the game.

“We are a miss-hit corner kick away from a Final Four. This team overcame a lot this year and went toe to toe with the No. 1 team in the country for 90 mins,” said Arkansas head coach Colby Hale after the game. “I thought our press caused them all sorts of problems. We just couldn’t get the final touch in the box.”

As mentioned earlier, this was the second consecutive season to end in the Elite Eight for the Hogs. This was the seventh straight season that Arkansas made the NCAA Tournament, and ninth time in the last ten seasons. All of which was under head coach Colby Hale.

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Heading into Elite Eight, Arkansas has reigning national Player of the Week

Arkansas will head into the Elite Eight with the National Player of the Week on a tear.

Jessica De Filippo was the best player in the country last week.

Literally.

The Arkansas forward was named National Player of the Week by College Soccer News. Then again by Top Drawer Soccer. De Filippo had three goals in Arkansas’ two games, a Round-of-32 win over Ohio State and a Sweet 16 win over Memphis.

De Filippo has six goals in the NCAA Tournament. That’s more than 41 of the 64 teams in the tournament.

For the season, she has 12 goals in 21 games, while adding eight assists from her forward spot.

Arkansas plays No. 1-seed Florida State in the Elite Eight on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+.

 

 

Too Sweet! Hogs are into the Sweet 16 after beating Ohio State

Arkansas soccer is into the Sweet 16 after beating Ohio State.

The Ohio State, the Buckeyes call their athletic programs.

The defeated Ohio State, we’ll call them now.

Arkansas soccer knocked off OSU on Friday night from Fayetteville to book a spot in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, 5-2.

A 3-1 halftime deficit told the tale. Ohio State scored the first goal in the seventh minute, but Arkansas countered with scores from Anna Podojil bookended by two from Bea Franklin over the course of the next 33 minutes.

Ava Tankersley and Jessica De Filippo popped two more shortly after halftime and that was, ostensibly, that.

The win puts the Razorbacks into the Sweet 16 for the second straight season. They’ll host Memphis on Sunday for a shot at the Elite Eight. The Tigers were unranked entering the NCAA Tournament, but shutout No. 10 St. Louis – Arkansas is ranked No. 9 – in the first round.

Arkansas soccer routs Missouri State, advances in NCAA Tournament

Arkansas soccer advances to second round of the NCAA Tournament after 6-0 blowout over Missouri State.

Arkansas soccer made it look easy on Friday against Missouri State as they cruised to an easy 6-0 win to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

https://twitter.com/RazorbackSoccer/status/1591270205686022146?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Three of their first six goals came just six minutes into the game, and they led 4-0 at halftime.

“We thought we had a good week of training. We had some time (to prepare) and thought we were going to come out flying, and we did,” said head coach Colby Hale. “We scored a goal pretty early, which I thought set the tone for the game.”

The Hogs were led by senior forward Jessica De Filippo who scored a career-high three goals.

“She scored three goals tonight, but I thought her distribution and her winning first and second balls was as good as it’s been all year,” said Hale.

With Friday’s win, Hale improved to 8-1 in first round NCAA Tournament games and the Hogs improved to 7-0 in NCAA Tournament home games.

Arkansas (12-3-4) will play Ohio State (11-5-3) in the second round, but will not know their playing site until Saturday’s game between Saint Louis and Memphis. If Saint Louis wins, they will be hosting second and third round games.

The Hogs dropped their season opener to Saint Louis 1-0, and are the No. 3 seed in their bracket. Saint Louis is the No. 2 seed.

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Razorbacks to host Missouri State in first round of NCAA Tournament

Arkansas soccer is eyeing a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, but must get by Missouri State first.

Arkansas soccer will be hosting Missouri State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

The Razorbacks have some history on their side when it comes to postseason play. Not only will this be the fifth season that the Razorbacks have hosted an NCAA Tournament game and the ninth season they’ve made the tournament since 2013, but they’re also 6-0 in postseason home games all-time.

The Razorbacks (11-3-4) are a No. 3 seed in their side of the bracket, and if they win on Friday will play either Ohio State or Bucknell in the second round.

Arkansas is looking to get back in action after a tough 1-1 (5-4 penalties) loss to Vanderbilt in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Missouri State (12-6-2) will be a tough first round test, though, as they defeated Murray State 1-0 to win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship and book their ticket into the big dance.

Arkansas and Missouri State last played in February of 2021 where the Razorbacks won 7-0 in Fayetteville.

Friday’s game is set to start at 6:30 p.m. (CT) at Razorback Field. Broadcast details have not yet been announced.

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Razorbacks stunned in SEC Tournament, hopeful for NCAA Tournament draw

Arkansas beat Vanderbilt by three goals in the regular season but fell in its first SEC Tournament game in penalties.

Waiting to hear from the NCAA Tournament selection committee is almost never fun. Unless you’ve won your conference tournament.

Arkansas did not. And now the Razorbacks have until Monday before learning their fate after falling in their first game of the SEC Tournament to Vanderbilt, 1-1 (5-4 in penalties). Arkansas had beaten Vanderbilt 3-0 during the regular season.

The goal struggle continued a common theme over most of the last two weeks for Arkansas. The Razorbacks put up six goals in the season finale against Kentucky, but had a total of two goals in the three games before that, including two shutouts.

Coach Colby Hale’s team finished fifth in the SEC and entered the week ranked No. 11 in the nation. That ranking suggests the Hogs will almost certainly be part of the NCAA Tournament when selection day rolls around Monday.

Arkansas finished the regular season 11-3-4.

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