Rockets get a 1-1 tie at NIU.

UT scored 1st and led until about 2 minutes left. So, the new coach kept one thing from previous teams, the propensity to give up very late game tying or game winning goals.

Rockets pick up their 1st MAC win, 1-0 over CMU at home. Mia Leonetti tapped in a ball off a shot by Kaema Amachree after she had made a great run.
Rockets dominated the 1st half and probably should have scored 2 or 3, but they have a real problem finishing. They broke through early in the 2nd, and then held on for dear life the rest of the way.

Earlier this week, the Rockets lost at Ball State, 2-1.

Next week they travel to Ohio, and then get Akron back at home.

Rockets get their 2nd MAC win today, beating Ohio 1-0 on the road. Lone goal from Kaema Amachree midway thru the 1st. OU out-shot UT 17-4, but put few shots on goal. Rockets now 2-2-1 in MAC play, and surprisingly tied for 6th place at the moment.

Rockets are back home to host winless Akron on Sunday.

Rockets get their 3rd straight MAC win, beating winless Akron 3-0. Goals by Whitehead, Dault and Leonetti. Akron has not scored in 4 straight games now, but they had not given up 3 goals in any of their MAC games before today.

With the win, and a Buffalo loss, I think that puts UT into 5th place as of today. (Top 6 make the tournament.)

They play EMU and Miami next week, both of whom are well below them in the standings, although EMU played 1st place BG tough today, with BG needing a goal in the last 2 minutes to win it 3-2.

Rockets get their 4th straight win, and 4th straight clean sheet, with a 3-0 win over EMU. 2 goals in the 1st 10 minutes from Amachree and Leonetti and then a clincher late from Medalle.

Unfortunately, the Rockets didn't get much help from other teams in the standings. Kent upset 1st place BG 2-0 which sounds good, but Kent is just ahead of UT in the standings. Winless Akron outshot Ball State 25-10 but could not get a win, as BSU scored late to win 2-1. And WMU needed a goal very late to beat 1-6 Miami.

So, the Rockets are in 5th place by themselves at 4-2-1 (13 points), 2 points behind Kent and WMU. The Rockets play Miami on Sunday. Although the Rockets have not beaten any decent teams so far, given they were picked to finish 11th they are having a great season so far. Let's see if they can keep it up.

Well the streak ended today as the Rockets lost a 2-1 decision to, previously 1-6, Miami. Game was only streamed on some strange Miami mobile app, so I could not watch. Amachree scored 1st for UT, but Miami tied it an then got a very late goal to win it. That the 2nd game that UT gave up a very late goal, including NIU scoring late to tie it. UT is now 4-3-1. Don't give up those 2 goals and UT would be tied for 1st in points, but have more wins.

Unfortunate, because UT got some help from other teams today as NIU beat Kent, Buffalo tied BG and Ohio tied Ball State. A UT win would have put them alone in 4th, only 2 points out of 1st, but instead they are tied for 5th with NIU and 5 points behind co-leaders Ball State and WMU. They have a tough final 3 matches, playing at Buffalo, Kent at home and then at 1st place WMU. Not gonna be easy to hold on to a top 6 spot.

The Rockets' shot at the MAC tourney took a huge blow last night, as they lost at UB, 3-0.

The skill level of the Bulls was just light-years ahead of the Rockets and it took a spectacular performance by UT keeper Brielle Young to keep it a scoreless tie at the half. The Rockets had 0 shots in the 1st. Young made a few more highlight reel saves early in the 2nd and UT actually managed to get a couple shots of their own, but eventually the inevitable happened and Buffalo finally put one through. Then the wheels came off from there. Could have easily been 10-0 without the play of Young. Can't understand how Toledo was ahead of Buffalo in the standings coming in.

A UT win would have nearly guaranteed a spot in the tournament, but the loss drops them to 7th. Rockets have to beat Kent on Sunday to grab the last tournament slot. A loss or tie and they are out.

Well the season that started out kinda promising is ending with a thud, as the Rockets lost to Kent today 4-1. That means they can't qualify for the tournament. They still have one more game against WMU who is quite good, so I'm not optimistic that won't be a blowout either.

Still, the Rockets did better than expected, and played a lot better than last season. But the new coach needs to up the recruiting to get players with more speed and better skill levels if the Rockets are going to get back to the top of the conference, where they used to live a while back.

UT's soccer season ended this week with a loss to MAC champs WMU, 3-1.

What looked like a promising finish just a couple weeks ago when the Rockets were in the tournament qualifying mix ended with 4 straight losses and a 9th place finish at 4-6-1. Better than the predicted 11th place finish in the preseason poll.

Will be interesting to see what coach Batman can do in the off-season to improve the team's overall speed and skill level, which were both below most of the MAC squads. Wonder if he will work the portal at all, or just rely on bringing in some more of his own recruits.

Soccer signs 12, from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and West Virginia. So, at least that alleviates one concern I had, that the new coach's recruiting reach would be limited. That's 22 new players in the last 2 classes.

https://utrockets.com/news/2023/11/9/wom...class.aspx


Also interesting to note that Ohio won the MAC Tournament and Ohio was one of the teams UT actually beat this year.

Soccer got a '25 verbal from 6'0 Defender Lilah Smith from Gull Lake HS, MI Nice to get some height for the back line.

https://www.ncsasports.org/womens-soccer...lah-smith1

UT announced today that they picked up a transfer from Kent State - defender Delaney Ranallo. Grad transfer who started 64 matches for Kent the past 4 seasons. Good size at 5'11. Nice addition to shore up the back line.

Rockets get another transfer defender in Tori Lyncha from Xavier. Looks like she may have 2 years left. Did not play much for X, 9 games total in 2 seasons.

Saw this short interview with former Rocket Isa Echeverri after the announcement that she is joining Telemundo Deportes as a soccer analyst.

https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/news/is...s/1726469/