Pacers Honored For Improvement on Pitch During 2009 Season

2009 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Most Improved    

CAMARILLO, Calif. - The USC Aiken women's soccer team was honored as one of the top 20 most improved NCAA Division II women's soccer team on Wednesday, Jan. 27 by Somis Sports.

The rankings, which are available on the Somis Sports website at www.somissports.com, are done by calculating a team's improvement by comparing its final 2009 rating to an adjusted 2008 rating. A team's rating roughly equates to net goals (goals scored minus goals against).

The criteria allowed the Pacers to obtain a 1.34 rating to leave them with the 15^th-best improvement in all of Division II women's soccer. USC Aiken improved its win total by three games in 2009.

The 2009 USC Aiken women's soccer campaign ended with the Pacers owning a 6-11 record overall. USC Aiken finished the season winning four of its final five games. The Pacers concluded the 2009 Peach Belt Conference season with a 2-8 record.

In a season full of close contests for the Pacer women, USC Aiken ended its 2009 Peach Belt Conference slate having been on the losing side of three overtime games in PBC action. In total, USC Aiken finished its 2009 season with nine one-goal losses. The Pacers lost six of their eight games in PBC play by just one goal.

USC Aiken's defensive unit had a tremendous season-ending stretch of not allowing a goal. The Pacer defense had not given up a goal in just over 501 minutes before surrendering the first goal of the match to GCSU in their season finale. The Pacers had played the entire 90 minutes of the previous four matches without surrendering a goal.

USC Aiken senior defender Annie Whitley was named to the 2009 Peach Belt Conference Women's Soccer All-Conference team. Whitley, who started all 17 games for the Pacers, was named to the second team as a defender. Whitley was also chosen to the 2009 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's soccer team and the 2009 Peach Belt Conference All-Academic team.