Aug. 17, 2006

Senior goalkeeper Olivia Brown, junior goalkeeper Kasey Davenport and junior midfielder L.J. Williams have been named captains of this year's women's soccer team as selected by their teammates and coaches. Brown, the team's only senior, and Davenport, a second-year player who transferred from Christopher Newport, split time in goal last year for the Patriots. Williams sat out 2005 earning a medical redshirt.

The players will take the field as tri-captains on Friday as the Patriots will play at Richmond in their lone exhibition match of the season. The Spiders are coming off a 5-9-4 season but they had a strong recruiting class that was ranked by SoccerBuzz as second in the Atlantic 10, 12th in the Mid-Atlantic Region and 64th nationally. Mason's recruiting class was ranked as 18th in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Spiders will be young in the midfield and at goalkeeper this season, two positions where Mason has experience and depth. The Spiders were unbeaten at home last year, going 3-0-2 at First Market Stadium. The Patriots were 3-6-0 on the road in 2005.

The Patriots begin the season unranked in the Mid-Atlantic but they did receive votes in the preseason poll. Colonial Athletic Association members VCU (4th), James Madison (9th), William & Mary (10th) and Old Dominion (13th) were ranked in the region, as were Georgetown (12th) and Maryland (14th), two teams that Mason faces in September. Georgia, another Patriot foe in the coming weeks, is ranked 18th in the nation after having what was ranked as the nation's eighth-best recruiting class.

The 2006 season officially begins on August 25 when Mason travels to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech in a match slated for a 7 p.m. start. Mason's home opener is August 27, as the Patriots host Coastal Carolina at 2 p.m. that afternoon.