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Florida State will play Penn State and Connecticut in its first road trip of the season.

Aug. 27, 2008

Game Notes Week 2 in PDF Format

Tallahassee, Fla. - The Florida State soccer team opens its road campaign this weekend as the Seminoles travel to University Park, Pa., to face a pair of top 15 teams in Penn State and Connecticut. FSU started the 2008 season on the right foot with a 5-0 blanking of UCF at the Seminole Soccer Complex this past Monday. The Seminoles got multi-goal performances from Amanda DaCosta and Casey Short who tallied two goals each, while Lauren Switzer added four points on a goal and two assists.

Florida State Seminole Soccer Information
Friday, August 29, 5:00 pm - #4 Florida State (1-0-0) at #9 Penn State (1-0-0)
Live Stats: Gametracker

KEY NOTES VS. PENN STATE:
* This marks just the second meeting between Florida State and Penn State with the first coming in 2003 when the Nittany Lions defeated the Seminoles 2-1 in Tallahassee.

* FSU is 2-2 all-time against schools from the Big Ten having faced Illinois (2-0), Ohio State (0-1) and Penn State (0-1). Under head coach Mark Krikorian, FSU is 2-0 posting wins over Illinois in back-to-back seasons in the NCAA Tournament (2005 & 2006).

* Junior Becky Edwards is the lone Seminole from the state of Pennsylvania residing three hours to the southeast in her hometown of Downingtown.

* Penn State is the only school from the state of Pennsylvania that Florida State has faced in this the 14th season of Seminole soccer.

Sunday, August 31, 12:00 pm - #9 Florida State at #12 Connecticut
Live Stats: Gametracker

KEY NOTES VS. CONNECTICUT:
* Florida State and Connecticut square-off for just the fourth time in school history. Sunday's game marks the first regular season meeting in the series as all three previous contests have come during postseason play (2002, 2003, 2007).

* The lone neutral site meeting occurred in 2003 when UConn blanked FSU in the College Cup in Cary, N.C. The Seminoles own a record of 19-21-6 all-time when facing an opponent on a neutral site field including a record of 4-2 a season ago.

* FSU defeated the Huskies in the quarterfinals of last year's tourney erasing a one-goal deficit late in the second half and then scoring the game-winner in double overtime.

SEMINOLE ROAD OPENERS
Florida State is 5-8-0 all-time in road openers including a record of 2-1-0 under head coach Mark Krikorian. This weekend's road test in University Park marks the first time since 2004 that the Seminoles will open their road schedule east of the Mississippi. The last three years FSU traveled to the West Coast posting a record of 2-1-0. The Seminoles played Southern California (2005 - W, 4-0), Arizona State (2006 - W, 1-0 ot) and Portland (2007 - L, 1-2 ot) during that span.

MEETING OF THE MINDS
As No. 4 Florida State opens its road slate at No. 9 Penn State on Friday night, the sidelines will have a familiar look to it. When head coach Mark Krikorian arrived on campus at FSU for his first season in 2005, one of his first two assistants is current Nittany Lion head coach Erica Walsh. In their first season, they led the Seminoles to their first 20-win season and their second College Cup appearance in school history. Prior to taking over the Seminole soccer program, Krikorian served as head coach and Walsh an assistant coach for the United States U-19 National Team. Together they led the U.S. to a bronze medal at the 2004 U-19 Women's World Cup in Thailand.

Sunday's contest pits two of the top 10 winningest active coaches in Division I history in Krikorian and Connecticut's Len Tsantiris. Krikorian enters the 2008 season ranked eighth with a winning percentage of .767, while Tsantiris sits in tenth place with an all-time winning percentage of .765. The Seminole head coach is no stranger to Connecticut soccer as he faced Tsantiris and the Huskies on four previous occasions as head coach at Hartford. With the Hawks, Krikorian went 1-3-0 versus UConn including two meetings in the NCAA Tournament. Following last year's 3-2 victory by FSU in the NCAA Quarterfinals, four of the five all-time meetings against Connecticut with Krikorian on the sidelines has been decided by one goal.

SEMINOLE QUICK HITS
* Lauren Switzer opened the season with a career day against UCF tying a career-high with four points (1G, 2A) and setting a career-high with two assists. The junior midfielder tallied four points on two goals in the Seminoles' semifinal victory over Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament a season ago. In just one game, Switzer came within one point of matching her total season output of five points in 2007.

* Sophomore Amanda DaCosta notched her first multi-goal game of her career scoring two first half goals in the season opener against UCF. She tied a career-high with four points set against Francis Marion back on Sept. 7, 2007. As was the case in last year's home opener against Francis Marion, DaCosta scored the first goal of the season at home as the Seminoles opened the 2008 season with a 5-0 win over UCF.

* Katrin Schmidt and Becky Edwards extended their streak of consecutive games started following the season opener against UCF. Schmidt has now started 62 straight games for the Seminoles, while Edwards pushed her streak to 34. Kelly Rowland holds the school record for the most consecutive starts at 87 (8/31/03 to 10/22/06). Schmidt moved into seventh all-time for career starts with 78.

For Complete Notes please see the above PDF.