Oct. 10, 2007

HOUSTON - The University of Houston soccer team looks to snap a three-match slide this weekend against a pair of Conference USA foes on John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium.

UH takes on red-hot Memphis at 7 p.m. CDT Friday before closing out the weekend with UAB at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Cougars (4-5-1, 0-1 C-USA) have dropped three straight and have been held scoreless for the past 230-plus minutes.

Returning front liners Nikki Echeverria (Sugar Land, Texas/Clements HS), Christine Nieva (Mesquite, Texas/North Mesquite HS/Arizona State) and Brittney Pfeiffer (Sugar Land, Texas/Austin HS) will look to continue to boost the offense. All have missed time over the last month due to injury.

Pfeiffer made her season debut last weekend against Rice and almost tallied a goal after bouncing a shot off the crossbar. Islara Rodriguez (Houston, Texas/Awty Internationl School) and Lauri Byrne (Southlake, Texas/Southlake Carroll HS) are the team's leading scorers with three and two goals, respectively.

Memphis (8-2, 1-0 C-USA) enters on a six-match winning streak that has seen it outscore the opposition 16-2. They are currently ranked No. 8 in the NSCAA Central Region.

Harumi Someya is the squads' leading scorer with six goals, while Kylie Hayes and Melissa Smith each have five goals on the season. Isabel Briones has started nine matches in goal, tallying a 1.19 goals against average.

UAB is 4-5-1 on the year in mired in a five-match losing streak. Two of those losses have come in overtime. The Blazers fell to Memphis 2-1 in overtime on Friday night. UAB takes on Rice at 7 p.m. Friday.

Danya Barsalona is the team's leading scorer with four goals. Kate Blankenship has started all 10 matches in goal this season, earning a goals against average of 1.06.

Live stats and streaming video for both matches will be available at www.UHCougars.com.