2006 Season in Review
11/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Nov. 3, 2006
The 2006 TCU soccer season was filled with numerous highlights that encompassed the program both on and off the field. The Horned Frogs concluded their regular season slate with a 1-0 win over San Diego State on Oct. 28 to move their record 6-8-4 overall and 1-3-3 in the Mountain West Conference.
Under the guidance of second-year head coach Dan Abdalla, the Horned Frogs used a very young team of nine true freshmen to match their win total from each of the last two seasons.
After guiding TCU to the Mountain West Conference Tournament in his first season at the helm, Abdalla came within one match of taking the Horned Frogs to their first back-to-back postseason appearances since the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
The 2006 season was also highlighted by multiple enhancements to the continued growth of TCU's facilities and overall program. Headlining the enhancements was the addition of lights to Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium during the offseason. Another addition was the implementation of free video streaming for the majority of TCU's home matches on TCU All-Access at GoFrogs.com. In addition to video streaming, TCU also had live audio of seven of its 10 home matches on GoFrogs.com and 88.7 KTCU.
The addition of lights combined with the marketing, promotion and overall game atmosphere also led to TCU drawing the largest season attendance in school history. After drawing a school-record 6,062 fans in 2005, TCU more than doubled the total in 2006 by drawing 12,543 fans.
TCU's single-game average of 1,254 ranked second in the Mountain West to BYU (2,070) and is projected to rank in the top 10 nationally. After having just three matches in the history of the program draw 1,000 fans, TCU didn't draw fewer than 1,072 fans in any of its 10 home matches.
Another highlight to the 2006 season came on Sept. 8 when TCU hosted No. 1 Notre Dame in front of the second-largest crowd in school history (2,053). The game was scoreless until Notre Dame was able to score in the 54th minute and hang on for a 2-0 win.
Helping to spur TCU's attendance in 2006 was the incredible growth in season ticket sales from the previous all-time high of 10 to over 400 in 2006.
With a very young team, freshmen played a significant role for the Horned Frogs this season. Most notably was the play of Lizzy Karoly and Michelle Nguyen, who paced the Mountain West in shots with 63 and 62 shots, respectively. Karoly paced the team with six goals and 14 points, while Nguyen tied Lauren Pope tied for second on the team with nine points. Despite missing the final 11 games with a leg injury, Pope was TCU's second-leading scorer with four goals.
After starting the season 0-2, the Horned Frogs posted their first two wins of the season by claiming the TU Women's Soccer/Grover Classic on Sept. 3. The title was earned with convincing victories over host Tulsa (2-0) and Oral Roberts (6-2).
With two consecutive victories under their belt, the only thing that kept TCU from reeling off four straight wins was a 2-0 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame. Following the tough match with the Irish, TCU compiled two more victories with wins over Houston (2-1) and Sam Houston State (2-1).
TCU earned its fifth win of the season on Sept. 23 with one of its five shutouts, as the Horned Frogs blanked Texas-San Antonio, 3-0.
Following the victory over the Roadrunners, TCU had three ties in four matches and four in seven matches before earning a 1-0 win over San Diego State to cap the season.
On the year, TCU had three players receive Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors. The third honor came on Oct. 30 as senior Casey Glass was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week for scoring the game-winning goal against San Diego State on Oct. 28. The Offensive Player of the Week was the second of the season for TCU after Lizzy Karoly earned the same honor on Sept. 25. On Sept. 11, sophomore Caroline Starns was named Defensive Player of the Week.
The end of the 2006 season also marked the conclusion to the careers of TCU's senior class of goalkeeper Katy Buchanan, defender Karissa Hill, forward Casey Glass and defender Breanne Kaldheim. The quartet of seniors were a part of 27 wins, including two postseason appearances. In 2006, the quartet helped TCU post the second-lowest goals against average in school history by only giving up 1.32 goals per game.
The future remains bright for TCU in 2007 with 84.2 percent of its scoring returning from 2006. The Horned Frogs will also return eight of 11 starters.
