Aug. 15, 2008

If you ask Lamar women's soccer coach Dewi Hardman if he wants to win Saturday's exhibition game against Tyler Junior College, you may get a strange response.

Like most competitors he wants his team to be on the winning side of the ledger after Saturday's 6 p.m. kickoff at Cardinal Stadium, but at the same time he understands that the long-term goal far exceeds the short-term satisfaction of winning a game that doesn't count in the official record books.

"We will focus on how we need to play and the things we want to improve upon in terms of trying to create the two to three chances needed to score a goal," Hardman said. "It is our first game at home and I want the team to protect its home field while still getting better."

That being said, Tyler is not your typical first-year program playing their first-ever game - both of which are occurring Saturday evening. Head coach Chris Rose's roster features more than a half-dozen international players along with some strong talent from the Dallas and Houston areas, so this will not be the run-of-the-mill squad facing LU. In fact, the Apaches have been picked to finish near the top of the NJCAA Region XIV by a few experts.

"They will play with a lot more experience than most first year programs," according to Hardman. "We need to be on our game and ready for a tight game because they posses far more experiences and more exposure than most junior college teams and most first year teams."

Lamar has spent the days since Tuesday's 1-0 setback at Navarro College working on finishing around the goal and focusing on each possession.

"I want to see us keep our same organizational presence while eliminating the mistakes from Tuesday," Hardman said.

"I was fairly pleased with our offensive movement but we need to do a better job of converting chances. We just need an increase in concentration, intensity and focus since the season is one week away."

Admission is free to Saturday's match. The season officially gets underway on Friday, Aug. 22 at Texas Tech.