Schreiner Students, Faculty, Staff and Fans,

Welcome (back) to campus for what we hope is a great year for everyone associated with Schreiner University and Schreiner Athletics. I know that our student-athletes and teams are very excited to get started and six teams will do so over the next 10 days. One of those teams (Women's Soccer) will do so right here on campus tomorrow afternoon when they host Cedar Valley College at 4:00 pm. Our Men's Soccer and Volleyball teams each start their regular season on the road tomorrow afternoon and evening. Our Cross Country teams, as well as Men's Golf, will start their seasons the following weekend.

If you are new to SU, all Schreiner athletic events are free for our students, faculty and staff. I know our student-athletes love to see Schreiner fans in the stands when they compete so we hope you'll take advantage of the opportunity to come out and see some great college sports action and cheer on your Mountaineers to success this fall and beyond. Here is a quick outlook on each of the three "team" sports that start play tomorrow as well as a schedule of all the action that will take place over the next week. I will try to update this information weekly to keep you informed about our teams activities but you can also go to the Schreiner Athletics website (http://athletics.schreiner.edu)  to get more information about the teams and students representing Schreiner.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: a very young Mountaineer team will look to build on it's strong defensive presence that it established last year. Although the team has nearly 30 players, only one (Brittany Cardwell) has more than one year of experience on the team. Last year's strong freshmen class has a year under it's belt and SU adds 11 more freshmen this year. The defense should be stout, but Mountaineer fans should see more offense this year as well. The early season schedule is a tough one with matches against scholarship teams but this should make the team battle-tested by the time we get to ASC contests.

VOLLEYBALL: SU has an interesting combination with four seniors returning along with just one other player from last year's team. The other 14 players are all newcomers, but don't call this a rebuilding year. This should be the most talented and deepest team to wear the maroon and white in many years. Seniors Misty Fletcher, Caitlin Gayle, Audra Burnap and Holly Howard have the experience but each will be challenged by the new recruits and sophomore Denise Pichot. If the teams blends well, expect SU to make some big noise in the ASC West after just missing the ASC playoffs by one game in 2009.

MEN'S SOCCER: last fall was a return to glory for SU as the men earned a cherished spot in the ASC Championship tournament - then won their first round match before falling in the semis to the #1 seed and host in a close match. The team had no seniors last year, so there is plenty of experience returning - along with some strong freshmen recruits. The ASC is one of the most evenly-matched conferences in the nation so SU has a great chance to battle for a top spot, but can't afford any lethargy because there are many teams (like Schreiner in 2009) that can knock you off if you aren't ready to play. Six seniors, led by Stephen Gonzalez, Kenny Benson and Derek Brosky will be called upon to lead this fall as SU seeks to again make the ASC Championships.

This week's schedule:

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010:
WOMEN'S SOCCER vs. Cedar Valley College (Mountaineer Field) at 4:00 pm
VOLLEYBALL vs. UMHB (Georgetown, TX) at 6:00 pm
MEN'S SOCCER at Trinity (San Antonio, TX) at 7:30 pm
VOLLEYBALL at Southwestern (Georgetown, TX) at 8:00 pm

Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010:
VOLLEYBALL vs. Bellhaven (Jackson, MS) at Noon
VOLLEYBALL vs. Faulkner (Jackson, MS) at 4:00 pm

Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010:
VOLLEYBALL at Millsaps (Jackson, MS) at 10:00 am
VOLLEYBALL vs. Loyola (Jackson, MS) at Noon
WOMEN'S SOCCER at UT-Permian Basin (Odessa, TX) at 1:00 pm
MEN'S SOCCER at UT-Permian Basin (Odessa, TX) at 3:00 pm

Come out and show both our team and the opponents that we have the best fans in the ASC - and also show your sportsmanship by cheering for SU and not against the opponent.

Thanks and Go Mountaineers!!!