Lady Cajuns Soccer 2006

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UL's soccer team is a definite dark-horse pick this week at the Sun Belt Conference Soccer Tournament, but not as dark a pick as in previous years. The Cajuns welcome the league's other seven top teams for the single-elimination tournament that begins today at the UL Track/Soccer Facility. Four first-round games are scheduled today beginning at 10 a.m., with the host and sixth-seeded Cajuns meeting third seed North Texas in today's 7 p.m. finale. Most conference observers are expecting a 1 p.m. Saturday finals pairing matching top-seeded Denver (11-0) and second seed Middle Tennessee (10-1), but UL coach Scot Wieland wouldn't be surprised if the bracket included some upsets - especially involving his team. "This is sudden death for everybody now," Wieland said. "We're all starting on an even plane and records don't mean anything." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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The rain that started falling about 45 minutes before match time was probably a bad omen for UL’s soccer team. The Cajuns were going to have enough trouble keeping up with North Texas’ highly-talented Mean Green, before the UL Track/Soccer Facility pitch became less turf and more slip-and-slide. But it probably wouldn’t have mattered. North Texas’ 5-1 victory in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament showed the difference in an experienced tournament team and a Cajun squad that, although much improved over last season, still isn’t quite ready to stay with the league’s best in a sudden-death format. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com