March 3, 2003

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech women's soccer team spilt a pair of spring exhibition games over the weekend, defeating the Rio FC of Albuquerque, 3-1, on Saturday morning, but falling to the Sting '86 of Dallas, 2-1, on Sunday morning.

Junior Catie Arsenault (Keller, Texas) scored a pair of goals in the second half of Saturday's win as the Red Raiders battled back from a 1-0 deficit to take the lead. The team added a goal when a corner kick from freshman Karen Stephens (Denton, Texas) was inadvertently shot into the Rio FC goal by one of its own players for the final 3-1 score. Freshman Beth Lippert (Woodinville, Wash.) got the win, playing all 90 minutes in goal for Tech.

On Sunday, the Red Raiders once again fell behind 1-0 but would not have enough to come back on the Dallas-based Sting '86. Freshman Megan Knauss (Tigard, Ore.) played goal for the first half and moved to forward in the second half. Lippert replaced Knauss in goal. At one point during the game the Red Raiders showed the youth of the team by playing six freshmen on the field. In the second half, it was sophomore Nicole Frilot (Albuquerque, NM) who scored to cut the lead in half, but Tech would not get any closer.

"We did not put a full 90 minute game together," said head coach Felix Oskam. "We had a poor first half in both games, but it was good to see us step up the second half. It was also good to see some of our young players get some playing time, since they did not see a lot of it in the fall."

The Red Raiders will be back in action when they take on the New Zealand National Team on March 28 at 7 p.m. at R. P. Fuller Stadium.