Conway – The Central Arkansas Bears will open a pair of new chapters on Friday night, when they host the Little Rock Trojans at the Stephens Complex at 7:00 PM. The match will kick off the 2018 season for the Bears, as well as serving as the first match in the newly announced Governor's I-40 Showdown.

The Bears, who were picked to finish fourth in the Southland Conference Preseason Poll, return seven starters from a squad that earned the fourth seed in last season's SLC Tournament behind an 11-10-0 overall record and a 7-4-0 mark in league play. The Bears will lean on a heavily experienced senior class in forward Camille Bassett, defenders Kristen Ricks and Kelsey Quick, and keeper Lauren Mercuri, a group that has helped the Bears to 33 wins over the past three seasons while combining to play in 213 games during their careers.

Central Arkansas enters Friday night's match after a preseason that head coach Jeremy Bishop is pleased about.

"Overall, the preseason has gone really well," said the UCA skipper. "We've got a lot of returning players that are going to continue to do good things for us, and we've got some younger ones that we feel confident are going to do a good job of stepping in for us. They're working extremely hard and are definitely looking forward to starting the season."

Bassett, the 2016 Southland Conference Player of the Year, earned 2018 Preseason All-Southland Conference Honors following a junior campaign that saw her score three goals and add a pair of assists. She will be joined by junior Jordan Slim (three goals, one assist) and transfers Bria Williams (Florida International) and Connie Awuku-Darkoh (Cumberland).

"Cami was the Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year her first two years, so it's great to have a player like that back," said Bishop. "The numbers weren't necessarily there last year, but she continued to have the same chances to score and she created a lot of chances for us, so we just have to get back to those going into the net. Jordan is going to be able to step in there and the additions of Connie and Bria should be a big help too."

A year after replacing the central portion of the midfield, Bishop will now have to replace the outside midfielders following the graduation of four-year starters Alex Moore and Dayna Mounie following last season.

"We graduated some midfielders, but we've got some good returners in there," said Bishop. "Losing Dayna and Alex is huge, but Anika Sultan and Hadley Dickinson played a lot of minutes there last year and Autum Schwartz is back.
 

Defensively, Bishop will depend on Ricks and Quick, who last year helped anchor a Central Arkansas back line that limited its opponents to just 1.09 goals per game, good for fourth in the Southland Conference.

"With Kris and Kelsey returning in the back, that's two players that are going to have to step up, and they will," said Bishop. "They've both played a lot of minutes in the back, and then we've also got Alex Wetteland and Lily Sultan, who have both played some minutes there, and we've got some freshman that I think will be able to push for some minutes on the back line as well."

In goal, the Bears will turn to Mercuri, who has split time over her first three seasons but has played at least 890 minutes each year. Last season she started 11 matches for the Bears, making 61 saves and tallying an .810 save percentage and 1.12 goals against average while collecting four shutouts.

"Lauren has played a lot of minutes, so she's going to be ready to take over there, but Reagan McCombsis pushing her there too," said Bishop, highlighting the level of competition all over the field for the Bears. "We've got good competition in the spots that we need it, and we've got good experience in the rest of them. The depth is there, we're two-deep at every spot, so depending on how players develop and injuries, we've got people that can play in every spot."

Friday night kicks off an eight-match non-conference schedule that Bishop hopes will prepare his squad for the Southland Conference gauntlet.

"We're looking for this portion of the schedule to just prepare us, as far as the speed of the game, the physical side of it, and just getting mentally ready for the grind of the conference season, where we'll be playing one or two games per weekend against quality opponents," said Bishop. "I think our non-conference schedule is strong, with some of the usual suspects in Arkansas State and Missouri State that we play every year, but also in teams like Memphis and Mississippi State that are really going to challenge us. We'll get tested in a lot of ways, and we'll get a good feel for our team, so it'll give us the chance to fix what we need to fix."

The match will also serve as the first meeting of the Governor's I-40 Showdown, a yearly competition between Central Arkansas and Little Rock that spans 11 sports and 17 games. The winner of Friday night's match will give their school the first three points out of a total of 43 available this season.