The first event of the 2010-11 sports season at the University of Evansville comes Wednesday when the Purple Aces' women's soccer team hosts Lipscomb University in a 7:00 CDT exhibition match at Arad McCutchan Stadium.

UE also plays a friendly at Southeast Missouri on Saturday before starting the regular season on Friday, August 20 at home against Indiana University.  The Hoosiers are coached by UE All-American and Hall of Famer Mick Lyon.

Here's a look at today's Media Day notes:

Abby Guerra
According to an update posted yesterday by her family at Abbysfightforlife.com, Abby Guerra continues to make slow progress.  Although the sophomore midfielder has not regained consciousness since the July 18 vehicle accident, she does communicate more frequently on command with a blink or finger squeeze.  A fund has been established to help the Guerra family with medical expenses.  Checks should be made payable to the Abby Guerra Donation Fund, and sent to the UE Athletics Dept., 1800 Lincoln Ave., Evansville IN 47722.  Donations will be forwarded immediately to the custodian of the fund in Arizona.

Pre-Season Polls
Missouri Valley Conference coaches have picked the Purple Aces to finish fourth in the seven-team league, and sophomore forward Kristen Davis was chosen for the 11-player Pre-Season All-MVC Team.  TopDrawerSoccer.com has chosen Davis and fellow sophomore Dani Langness for its 20-player All-MVC Team.
MVC Women’s Soccer Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll:
1. Illinois State (46); 2. Creighton (37); 3. Missouri State (36); 4. Evansville (23); T5. Drake (19); T5. Indiana State (19); T5. UNI (19).

The Most MVC Championships
Evansville has won more Missouri Valley Conference women’s soccer championships (five MVC regular season titles, six MVC Tournaments) than any other school, and no one in the MVC has played in more NCAA Tournament matches than Evansville (four).  UE has also produced a league-high 19 members of the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team since 2000.

Looking For Goal Scorers
Kristen Davis is the only player on this year’s squad who scored a goal last season.  She had five of them to lead the team in scoring.  Newcomers Breanna Beine, Vanessa Legault-Cordisco, Stephanie Thompson, Erin Waldrop and Kaitlin Robinett are expected to bolster an offense that was held to 15 goals in 18 matches last year.  Legault-Cordisco played earlier this year for the full Canadian National Team.

Harrison, Elstone In Goal
The Aces have two experienced goalkeepers in sophomore Chaviel Harrison and senior Theresa Elstone.  (That’s the former Theresa Bagby.  She married Steve Elstone March 13).  Harrison and Elstone played nearly the same number of minutes last season, and their goals-allowed averages were nearly identical (1.97 for Harrison, 2.00 for Elstone). 

The Local Angle
The two local players on the squad are sophomore defender Olivia Robinson from Memorial High School and freshman midfielder Stephanie Thompson from Reitz.  Robinson was a starter in 2009, and Thompson is expected to compete for playing time this year.

Coach McKendree
This will be the third year for former UE All-American Krista McKendree as head coach.  She led the 2008 squad to the MVC regular season and tournament titles, and became the first rookie coach in UE’s Division I history to lead a team to an NCAA Tournament appearance.  She takes an 18-18-2 record into the 2010 season following a 13-5-2 season in 2008 and a 5-13-0 season in 2009.

On The Air, On TV
Eight UE women’s soccer matches can be seen live anywhere in the world this season, thanks to AcesTV video streaming at GoPurpleAces.com.  Four of the nine matches will be aired by WUEV-FM, which is also available at wuev.evansville.edu.