SAN ANGELO – The No. 8-ranked Angelo State soccer team returns to action this weekend with a pair of Lone Star Conference road games at West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico after wrapping up a six-game home stand where the Rambelles went 5-0-1 and outscored their opponents 17-0.

The Rambelles (9-0-1, 2-0-1 LSC) are off to the best start in program history and are atop the LSC standings through the first two weeks of conference play. This weekend's road games at WT (5-6, 1-2 LSC) and ENMU (5-4, 2-1 LSC) are the first true road games this season for ASU which played two neutral field games against Fort Lewis and Colorado Mesa in Dallas, but have yet to play an opponent on their home field. ASU is outscoring its opponents 33-3 this season and has not allowed a goal in the past six games and not in the past 661 minutes of play.

"Our defending is really the key to our success right now," ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said. "We are playing with a lot of energy and concentration. We are seeing great results because of the level of play we have on the defensive side of the field."

The Lady Buffs ended ASU's season last year in the conference tournament by taking a 1-0 win over the Rambelles at the ASU Soccer Complex. ASU went 5-1-2 on the road last season, including earning a 1-0 win on the turf in Canyon and a 0-0 draw in Portales, New Mexico.

ASU's eight shutouts this season are one shy of the all-time program record which was established in the 2003, 2008 and 2010 seasons. The Rambelles have seen 15 players score goals this season and own a 173-71 shot advantage. Opponents have been limited to a .042 shot percentage. ASU is coming off a 1-0 double-overtime win over Texas A&M-Commerce last Friday and a 1-0 win over Texas Woman's last Sunday.

"I think our team has responded well to our success early this season," McCorkle said. "They are very proud of what we are accomplishing, but they are also keeping it in perspective. They understand that we have a long season ahead of us and we can't slip up because we start getting overconfident. Conference is just getting started and we understand that. We are going to keep working hard to improve and there are still a lot of areas where this team can be better in."
 
Rambelle Roster Report
Sierra Anderson and Shantel Wittke were both honored this week with Lone Star Conference honors for their work last weekend in the victories over WT and TWU. Anderson claimed the second LSC Offensive Player of the Week honor of her career after delivering a golden goal for the Rambelles in double overtime against A&M-Commerce. Anderson, who is a junior from Wichita Falls, now has five goals this season and 14 in her career at ASU. She also scored goals against St. Mary's, UTPB and Fort Lewis College this season. Wittke, a junior from Arizona, earned the LSC Defender of the Week honor on Wednesday after recording shutouts against A&M-Commerce and TWU. Wittke has six shutouts this season and has made 35 saves through 739 minutes of play. She has a .921 saves percentage and 0.37 goals against average for the season and has made 12 saves without allowing a goal in 305 minutes of play in conference action. Wittke played in five games last season for the Rambelles in her first season in San Angelo and made 13 saves in 207 minutes of play.

Haley Mendel continues to lead the Rambelles in scoring with seven goals this season and has also added three assists. A sophomore from Bastrop, Mendel has the only hat trick for a Rambelle this season after she scored three goals in a 4-0 win over Colorado Mesa. Mendel also scored two goals in the season opener against Adams State and also has goals against New Mexico Highlands and Oklahoma Baptist on her resume. Loni Byers is third on the team with four goals and has added three assists. A freshman, Byers delivered a perfectly placed cross for Anderson's game winner last Friday and has also assists on goals by Brianne Brown and Jenny Kotowych. Byers scored her first career goal in the second game of the season against New Mexico Highlands and has since scored two goals against OC and another against UTPB. Kotowych has added three goals this season and Elizabeth Rodriguez, Cynthia Andrews and Brown each have two goals. Brown and Andrews now have three career goals after scoring one last season.

Selena Alvarez, Callie Smith, Ashley Exford, Dakota Briseno, Caitlyn Conaway, Tiffany Dang, Kathleen Keoughan and Brittany Martinez have each recorded one goal this season. Briseno delivered the game-winner last Sunday against TWU off an assist from Dang who leads the Rambelles with four assists. Dang has also assisted on three of Anderson's goals this season. Brown, Martinez and Keoughan have added two assists, while freshman Amalia Garcia has one assist which came on a Byers goal against N.M. Highlands.

Along with Wittke, sophomore goalkeeper and team captain Natalie Nielsen has recorded two shutouts and six saves this season. Nielsen earned her shutouts against OC and UTPB.
 
WEST TEXAS A&M LADY BUFFS

NEXT MEETING: Sunday, Oct. 26 @ 1 p.m.  //  ASU Soccer Field
West Texas A&M is coming off a 3-1 non-conference win over Southern Nazarene on Tuesday after taking a 0-1 loss last Sunday to ENMU in their only LSC game of the week. WT also has a 1-0 win over Commerce and a 1-2 loss to TWU on its season's resume. Emily Krenek leads the Lady Buffs this season with six goals, while Rhea Belgrave has three goals. Belgrave was named last season's LSC Defender of the Year and was the LSC Preseason Defender of the Year coming into this season. Jessie Thomas has added two goals for WT this season, while McKynzie Zick had played the majority of the minutes in goal and has 24 saves. Nicole Kemper has also seen time in goal and has 19 saves. Zick has three shutouts and Kemper has one coming into this weekend's action.

Angelo State earned a season sweep of the Lady Buffs in the regular season with a 2-1 overtime win in San Angelo before taking a 1-0 win in Canyon. The Buffs won their final two regular-season games to secure the fourth and final seed in the LSC tournament where they ended the Rambelles' season with a 1-0 win in the semifinals. The overtime victory came with a regulation goal from Cynthia Andrews before Sierra Anderson ended the game seven minutes into overtime, while the win in Canyon came with Kathleen Keoughan scoring with five minutes remaining in the game. The Lady Buffs finished the season with a 6-8-6 overall record and went 3-5-2 in conference play a year after winning the conference championship. The tournament win over ASU set up a game between Midwestern State and West Texas A&M. The two teams were tied 2-2 through two overtime before WT's season came to an end with a 4-2 penalty kick loss.

EASTERN NEW MEXICO ZIAS

NEXT MEETING: Friday, Oct. 24 @ 7 p.m. //  ASU Soccer Field
The Rambelles own an 8-4-1 all-time record against ENMU coming into the 2014 season. ASU went 1-0-1 last season against the Zias, earning a 1-0 double-overtime win at home before the two teams played to a 0-0 draw in Portales. The first meeting of the season between ASU and ENMU will be played on Sunday, Oct. 12 in New Mexico before the Rambelles play host on Friday, Oct. 24. The Zias are coming off a 4-8-5 overall record and finished last in the LSC standings with a 1-5-4 conference record. ENMU is under new leadership with Omar Morales being named the new head coach after serving as an assistant at West Texas A&M. ASU head coach Travis McCorkle got his head coaching start at ENMU before taking over the Rambelle program seven years ago.
 
Rambelles in the National Rankings
Up two spots following two the Lone Star Conference shutout wins last weekend, the Angelo State soccer team is now the No. 8-ranked team in the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division II Poll which was released on Tuesday.

ASU, which had never been ranked in program history before this season, entered the polls three weeks ago at No. 14 before rising to No. 11 and then No. 10. The No. 8 ranking is the highest in program history.

College of Saint Rose (9-0-1) remains the top ranked team in the nation, followed by No. 2 Minnesota State-Mankato (10-0-0), No. 3 Grand Valley State, No. 4 Columbus State (8-0-1) and No. 5 Colorado School of Mines (8-0-2). The Orediggers are the top ranked team in the South Central region which also has No. 17 Metro State (6-1-1) also in the national rankings. The NSCAA also releases regional rankings with Mines, ASU, Metro State, Regis, Western State Colorado, Midwestern State, Dallas Baptist, St. Edward's, A&M-Commerce and Eastern New Mexico representing the top-10 in the region