Huskers Host Adidas Invitational This Weekend

The Nebraska soccer team will host a pair of 2005 conference champions this weekend, as the Huskers welcome North Texas and Drake to Lincoln as part of a four-team tournament that begins at 2:30 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.

NU will face North Texas at 5 p.m. on Friday, while Southern California and Drake will kick off the tournament at 2:30 p.m. at the Nebraska Soccer Field. On Sunday, the Trojans will face North Texas at 11 a.m. before the Huskers and the Bulldogs wrap up the tournament at 1 p.m. One ticket will provide admission into both games each day.

The meeting with North Texas will be a contest of unbeatens as neither the Mean Green (2-0-1) nor the Huskers (1-0-2) have tasted defeat this season. North Texas, which captured the Sun Belt title in 2005 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, will be making its first trip out of the state of Texas this season when it travels to Lincoln for Friday's match.

Drake should prove to be another formidable foe for the Huskers, as the Bulldogs are 2-1-1 this season after claiming the 2005 Missouri Valley Conference crown.

Nebraska, competing with a complete roster for the first time this season, drew a tie and a win against a pair of Big Ten foes last weekend. The Huskers managed a 2-2 tie with Wisconsin on Friday, before blanking Iowa, 1-0 on Sunday.

Sophomore Aysha Jamani, seeing her first action of the season after traveling with the Under-20 Canadian National Team, scored a pair of goals over the weekend, including the game winner against the Hawkeyes. Junior Jessie Bruch added the Huskers' third goal of the weekend, while senior Brittany Timko notched two assists in her first games of the season after returning from a stint with the Canadian World Cup team.

Fans attending any of the matches this weekend are encouraged to park in the Stadium Drive Parking Garage, located across the street from the West side of Memorial Stadium. The fee for using the garage is $1 per hour and fans are advised that UNL Parking Services will ticket vehicles parked in university lots without a permit.

Also, a reminder that fans can enter the Nebraska Soccer Field from the original entrance on the south side by the pillars, or take advantage of an additional gate on the west side of the field beneath the skybridge connecting the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex and the Hawks Championship Center.

Scouting North Texas
Nebraska and North Texas will meet for the first time on Friday. While the Huskers may not have much first-hand knowledge on the Mean Green, North Texas boasts an impressive resume. The Mean Green have not lost in 2006 and the success comes on the heels of an impressive 2005 campaign that saw them post a 16-4-2 record and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Through three games in 2006, North Texas has defeated Texas State (2-1) and Houston (2-1 OT), while playing to a scoreless tie with Southern Methodist, which eliminated the Mean Green from the 2005 NCAA Tournament with a 3-0 first-round victory.

Kendall Juett has been UNT's top offensive threat so far this season, as she leads the team in nearly every category, including goals (2), assists (1), points (5) and shots (11).

In net, Kandice Ellis has logged every minute and has made 20 saves while posting a goals-against average of 0.62.

Scouting Drake
Drake is off to a solid start this season, posting a 2-1-1 record through its first four games. Since a season-opening 3-0 loss at Minnesota, the Bulldogs have posted a pair of quality victories and one tie.

Drake recorded its first win of the season when it went on the road to defeat 2005 NCAA Tournament participant Iowa State, 4-2. The Bulldogs followed that impressive victory by playing 14th-ranked Marquette to a scoreless tie last Friday. Drake then defeated DePaul, 1-0, last Sunday to enter this weekend's tournament on a three-match unbeaten streak.

The Bulldog offense is led by a balanced attack that has seen four different players net goals, including Liz Woerle, who leads the team with two goals. Melissa Nelson leads the team with two assists and four points.

Defensively, Drake enters this weekend on a 210-minute, 11-second scoreless streak. Goalkeeper Jenny Schroeder made 13 saves in the double-overtime tie with Marquette, while Erin Jarvis was in goal for the shutout against DePaul.

Sunday's match between Nebraska and Drake will mark the second-ever meeting between the two programs. In the first meeting, the Huskers posted a 4-0 victory in 2002.

All Tied Up
The opening of the 2006 season proved to be a historic one, as the Huskers recorded consecutive ties to open the year. It marked the first time in the 13-year history of Nebraska soccer that NU had played to a tie in back-to-back games.

Furthermore, there had been only two seasons (1999 and 2002) in which Nebraska had posted more than one tie in an entire year. The Huskers have gone an entire season with out a tie in six different seasons and it took NU until the 93rd game in program history before recording the first tie.

Before recording two ties in the first two contests of this season, NU had only played to a tie twice in the last 73 matches.

Timko Reaches Another Milestone
Senior Brittany Timko is no stranger to accomplishments, as she boasts two All-America awards, two Big 12 Player-of-the-Year awards, a Golden Boot Award as the top goal scorer at the Under-19 World Championship and a spot in the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame on her ever-growing list of accomplishments.

After Sunday's match with Iowa, Timko added another milestone to that list, albeit a smaller accomplishment than most on her impressive resume. With a team-high four shots on goal against the Hawkeyes, Timko now has 101 shots on goal in her career, becoming just the sixth player in Husker history to place at least 100 shots on goal.

Timko also recorded two assists on the weekend and with her first assist against Wisconsin on Friday, she moved into sole possession of third place on the NU career assist chart.

Klages Posts Seventh Career Shutout
Sophomore goalkeeper Jamie Klages needed to make only one save to post her first shutout of the season and the seventh of her career against Iowa on Sunday. A native of Coronado, Calif., Klages has posted seven shutouts in only 22 career starts.

Timko Plays Major Role in Husker Offense
Since her sophomore season at NU in 2004, senior Brittany Timko has been a catalyst for the Husker offense. Anyone who watches Nebraska play can see Timko's talent and impact, the statistics back up her pivotal role in NU's goal scoring ability.

The statistics of assists and goals simply measure a player's contribution to a team's goal. By looking at these two statistics and comparing them against the team's total number of goals in a season, one can calculate a percentage that shows how often a player had a hand in a team goal. The formula for this percentage is as follows: Goals + Assists/Team's Total Goals = Percentage of goals player had a hand in.

From the start of the 2004 season to the present, Nebraska has scored 92 goals in games in which Timko has played and she either found the back of the net herself or assisted on 62 of those goals (67 percent). Statistically speaking, Timko has had a direct hand in slightly better than two out of every three Husker goals scored in the past three seasons.

In her sophomore campaign of 2004, Timko posted five contests where she had a hand in every goal the Huskers’ netted and finished the year directly contributing to 28 of NU’s 44 goals for games in which she participated (64 percent). Timko bettered that success rate in 2005 when she posted seven games where she was involved in every goal NU scored and had a hand in 32 of the Huskers’ 45 goals on the season (71 percent).

Through Timko's two games in 2006, she has garnered two assists, directly creating the scoring chance on two of the Nebraska's three goals scored (67 percent).

To put Timko's importance to the NU offense in perspective, 2005 National Player of the Year Christine Sinclair had a hand in 49 of Portland's 79 goals last season for a production percentage of 62 percent, nine percentage points lower than Timko's.

Dropping the highest and the lowest percentage the goals-plus-assists leader for each Big 12 Conference team had, on average, a hand in almost 45 percent of her team's goals, a whopping 26 points lower than Timko's total.

Jamani Strikes Quickly in Return to Lineup
Sophomore Aysha Jamani started the 2006 season in grand fashion, scoring a goal in both of the Huskers' games last weekend. After missing NU's season opener while traveling with the Canadian Under-20 National Team, Jamani made an immediate impact upon her return, leading the team with two goals and four points and scoring the game-winning goal against Iowa to lift Nebraska to its first victory of the season.

Jamani is no stranger to quick starts, as she also netted two goals in the first two games of last season, including her first career multi-goal game as she scored twice in just her second career game. Jamani now has nine goals in her Husker career.

Timko Streaking
In her first two games of the 2006 season, senior Brittany Timko notched an assist in each match and has now scored at least one point in seven straight games dating back to a shutout loss to Iowa State on Oct. 28 of last season.

Counting only games in which NU has scored, Timko has produced at least one point in 10 consecutive games after notching at least one point in 13 straight non-shutout contests during the 2004 season.

In leading NU in goals and assists in 2005, Timko put together an impressive string where she directly contributed to 10 consecutive Husker goals over a seven-game stretch.

Of Timko’s 34 games in which Nebraska has scored at least one goal since the start of the 2004 season, Timko has failed to notch either a goal or assist only twice during that stretch.

Timko Nears 100 Points
Senior Brittany Timko recorded two assists in her first two games of the 2006 season last weekend. Her two points increased her career total to 97 and she needs just three points this weekend to become only the sixth player in NU history to top the 100-point plateau. Timko currently ranks seventh on the NU career points chart but is just seven points away from moving into the top five.

Injury Update
Nebraska has made it through the first two weeks of play relatively healthy after an unfortunate preseason that included four season-ending injuries.

Sophomore Lauren Isenhower was listed as a redshirt before the Huskers even reached training camp due to a knee injury she suffered while competing with Nebraska in Europe this past summer. Junior Meghan Hungerford also suffered a season-ending injury before the season began as she fractured her ankle during summer camps.

Then came the loss of senior defender Abby Penas, who was expected to be a major contributor for the NU defense in her final season at Nebraska. However, Penas suffered a knee injury in the Huskers' exhibition match with Louisville on Aug. 19, and is out for the rest of the season.

Freshman Jackie Walsh will likely apply for a medical hardship after undergoing foot surgery.

Corner Kickin'
Nebraska, which has historically enjoyed a tremendous advantage in corner kicks taken, is again out-cornering teams by a good margin.

NU enjoyed a 9-2 corner kick margin in its season-opener against Wright State, with senior defender Tanya Dennis taking all nine of Nebraska's corner kicks against Wright State as NU's regular kicker, fellow senior Brittany Timko, did not play.

Timko was back for Nebraska's two contests last weekend and took all 10 of the Huskers' corner kicks against Wisconsin and Iowa.

On the season, Nebraska is average slightly more than six corner kicks per game and has out-cornered its opponents, 19-11.

Timko Lands on Watch List
Nebraska senior Brittany Timko earned her second nomination to the Hermann Watch List this season as announced by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Timko is one of 25 nominees compiled by a panel of coaches from the NSCAA.

The Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy honors the top male and female Division I college soccer players in the United States. The award represents the highest level of individual achievement in the sport. Over the years, the award has honored some of the biggest names in U.S. soccer. Kristine Lilly, Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Claudio Reyna, Alexi Lalas and Tony Meola are just a few of the players who won the award prior to achieving success on the international stage.

An NSCAA All-American, Timko earned her first nomination as a junior in 2005 and went on to finish among 15 semifinalists for the award. A list of this year’s 15 Hermann Award semifinalists will be released in early November, with three finalists chosen later that month. The finalists will be invited to St. Louis, Mo., on Dec. 2 for the announcement of the winner, as selected through voting by the members of the NSCAA, at the NCAA Men’s College Cup. The winner will receive the prestigious crystal soccer ball trophy later that evening.

Big Time in the Big 12
Since joining the conference in 1996, the Nebraska soccer program has always been considered one of the teams to beat in the Big 12. Over the last 12 seasons, the Huskers have laid claim to eight Big 12 titles and five Big 12 Tournament championships. Only Texas A&M, which matched the Huskers with its eighth Big 12 title in 2005, has earned comparable level of success in the league.

Apart from its postseason success, Nebraska also owns a number of Big 12 team season records including most shots (656 in 2000), points (316 in 1999), goals (108 in 1999), goals per game (4.32 in 1999), assists (108 in 2000) and shutouts (16 in 2000).

Individually, Nebraska also reigns supreme, capturing a league-best 39 first-team All-Big 12 picks to Texas A&M's 28. Recently, NU senior Brittany Timko also joined the Big 12 record books as she notched a conference-record 21 assists in 2005 to topple the previous record of 17, which was set in 2003 by Oklahoma State's Nikki Wojtowicz.

NCAA Tournament Titans
For the Nebraska soccer program, the NCAA tournament isn't a goal, it's a tradition. The Huskers have been a staple in collegiate women's soccer's biggest competition for the past 10 consecutive seasons, including eight runs into the Sweet 16 and two into the Elite Eight.

NU's success, coupled with the enthusiasm and support of the Lincoln community and Husker soccer fans, have made Nebraska one of the NCAA's favorite postseason tournament sites. Lincoln has been host to opening-round action on seven occasions from 1996 to 2005. Even when the Huskers made the move to the Nebraska Soccer Field in 2005, the trend continued as the venue was once again chosen to host the opening round between Nebraska, Creighton, Iowa State and eventual national champion Portland.