Christabel Oduro

It took Christabel Oduro less than 45 minutes to help the Memphis women’s soccer team erase four years of frustration and continue a magical season. By game’s end, the sophomore had set an NCAA tournament record for most points in a contest, and tied another one for goals.

Oduro neatly packaged a hat-trick in the first half and added a second-half goal to help the Tigers record their first-ever NCAA tournament win, a 7-0 shutout of UT-Martin last month at Mike Rose Soccer Complex. Her nine points set an NCAA mark while her four goals tied her with Danesha Adams (UCLA '05), Sydney Leroux (UCLA '09) and Melissa Henderson (Notre Dame '09) for most goals scored in an NCAA tournament match.

Memphis continued on in the tournament, next facing Louisville for a chance to move on to the Sweet 16. (Watch for additional coverage of the record-breaking season in the spring issue of the U of M magazine.)

“It feels great to finally get the monkey off our back,” says head coach Brooks Monaghan of Memphis’ first NCAA win after four tries. “Not only did we get the monkey off our back, we threw it off our back,” says Oduro.

Monaghan said the difference in this year’s squad was “focus.”

Memphis’ 22-0-1 record at press time helped the Tigers to a No. 5 ranking in national polls. They captured their fifth straight C-USA tournament title at the end of the season, and tied the school mark for most consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (five) in any sport.

Oduro was C-USA Offensive Player of the Year while Lizzy Simonin collected the Defensive Player of the Year nod. Monaghan won his second Coach of the Year honor. Goalkeeper Elise Kuhar-Pitters joined Oduro and Simonin on the All-Conference First Team.

– by Greg Russell