Tech To Begin 2017 Campaign At Lobo Invitational

Friday, August 18

Albuquerque, N.M.

5:00 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

Grand Canyon

Tech To Begin 2017 Campaign At Lobo Invitational

August 17, 2017 | Women's Soccer

Match Notes Live Stats Stone, Wickenheiser, Boren Presser

The Red Raiders will face Grand Canyon on Aug. 18, followed by San Francisco on Aug. 20 in Albuquerque

LUBBOCK, Texas – The Texas Tech soccer team kicks off the 2017 season with a pair of matches at the Lobo Invitational on Aug. 18-20 at the UNM Soccer Complex in Albuquerque.

The Red Raiders square off with Grand Canyon on Friday, Aug. 18, at 5 p.m. CDT, then will close out the tournament against San Francisco on Sunday, Aug. 20, at 2 p.m. CDT. Live stats for both matches will be available at TexasTech.Statbroadcast.com.

"Grand Canyon is up first, they have a new coach who is a very good coach and has them pretty organized," head coach Tom Stone said. "They'll throw some things at us. That's a little bit of an unknown Friday night, although we know the coach really well and what his history has been.

"Sunday is a really good team from San Francisco. Jim Millinder was the coach at USC for many years, so he knows how to build a championship team. He's had this team in the top three or four in the WCC, which has been one of the top conferences in college soccer. His teams have always been really tough. Friday is a little bit of an unknown, but Sunday we know we're in for a battle."

It will be the first meeting between the Red Raiders and both the Lopes & Dons. This year's schedule opens on the road for the first time since Tech faced New Mexico in Albuquerque in 2013. The Red Raiders will not face the Lobos in this weekend's invitational. Last season, Grand Canyon went 7-9-2, while San Francisco put together a 7-12 record.

Tech will spend its first two weeks of competition away from home, travelling to California for Aug. 25-27, after this weekend's matches. The Red Raiders begin the weekend at Pepperdine for a 5 p.m. CDT kickoff, followed by a 6 p.m. CDT contest at San Diego to conclude the swing in the golden state.

Last weekend, Tech made its annual preseason trip to Colorado to face Denver in its only exhibition tune-up of the year. Freshman forward Kirsten Davis tallied the first goal in the 11', then senior defender Cassie Conarty found the back of the net in the 16' as the Red Raiders downed the Pioneers, 2-0.

"We call that game the x-ray because it really tells us what we need and shows us where we're strong," Stone said. "The first half was great, we were easily the dominant team and scored two really good goals. The second half, Denver threw everything at us because they had to get back in it and that gave us a chance with no result on the line to practice defending, work on protecting our box and blocking shots & crosses. Even though DU had a lot of the ball, we limited them to two shots over 45 minutes in the second half."

Nineteen letterwinners return from the 2016 team, which features all of its goal scorers & a majority of its starting defense, while 11 freshman join the fray and look to make an immediate impact. The 2017 campaign is the program's 24^th season and 11^th under head coach Tom Stone.

Included in the returning force is All-Big 12 midfielder Gwennie Puente and unanimous All-Big 12 Freshmen forward Jade King and midfielder Jordie Harr. Earlier this week, Harr was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 list, making it the eighth-straight year Tech has been represented on the squad.

Tech was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 standings, as voted on by the league's coaches. The ranking marks the fifth-straight year the Red Raiders have been projected to finish in the top four of the league, which featured six teams in the NCAA Tournament in 2016, the most since 2011.

The Red Raiders were one of the six squads to earn a postseason berth from the No. 1 RPI conference in the country, after finishing eighth in the Big 12 last season. The NCAA Tournament appearance was the program's fifth consecutive, as the Red Raiders concluded the year with a 9-9-2 record.