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PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida women's soccer team opens its season up with two games against strong South Region opposition this weekend. The Argonauts will face No. 15 Tampa in Melbourne, Florida, on Friday at 5 p.m. ET before being hosted by Florida Tech on Sunday at noon ET.

Both games will be streamed and live stats will be available at the links above.
 
Tough Road Ahead

• West Florida begins the season with a strong non-conference schedule, visiting No. 15 Tampa and Florida Tech.
• At the end of September, UWF will host defending national runner-up No. 2 Columbus State. The Argonauts are 4-0 all-time against the Cougars, including a 1-0 win in the 2008 NCAA Quarterfinals, and have outscored CSU 13-2.
• The Argonauts have three ranked opponents on this year's regular-season schedule, beginning with No. 15 Tampa on Friday.

 
Scouting Tampa

• The Spartans come off a 13-5-5 season from last year and bring back one of the top keepers in the Sunshine State Conference in Caroline Frykgard, who posted a 0.85 GAA as a junior last year. The team's returning leading goal-scorer is sophomore Nastasia Asgedom, who found the net five times last year and ranked third on the team with six assists. Miranda Gonzalez and Gabby Scirica were last year's leading goal-assisters and will each return for their junior seasons.
• Tampa reached the South Regional Final before seeing its 2015 season came to a close with a 1-0 loss to Barry in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
• The Argonauts are 5-5-1 all-time against Tampa and have won three of the last four matchups. UWF fell to UT last year 2-1 in a tough battle in Tampa, with the Spartans squeezing by on a Cici Gonzalez goal in the 85th minute.
• Tampa was picked to win the SSC in this year's preseason poll, garnering four out of nine first-place votes and topping Barry. The Spartans went 5-1-1 in conference play last year.

 
Scouting Florida Tech

• The Panthers have faced UWF just twice in the program's history, and the Argonauts came out on top each time. The first was a regular-season tilt in 2009, a 4-0 win for UWF, and the second was a 2-1 victory for West Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2013.
• FIT went 10-5-2 in 2015 and was 0-4 against ranked opponents.
• Florida Tech showed one of the best defenses in the SSC last year, holding opponents to 0.75 goals per game. The Panthers will have quite a hole to fill in goal, however, as last year's senior keeper Julia Kantor has moved on.
• The FIT offense looks to improve from last year, as the team's top goal-scorer Keira McCarthy will return, as will the team's top goal-scorer in 2013, Aubri Williamson, who has missed most of the last two seasons.

 
In the Preseason Polls

• The team earned a second-place spot in the Gulf South Conference preseason poll. In addition to the high finish for the team, defender Svenja Burkhardt, midfielder Sara Helgadottir and forward Kaley Ward were tabbed as preseason All-GSC selections.
• UWF received votes in the preseason NSCAA poll and will face three opponents ranked in the NSCAA's top 25, in No. 2 Columbus State, No. 15 Tampa and No. 18 North Alabama.
• Burkhardt was named a preseason all-American by Hero Sports, and was one of the three players from the GSC to earn the honor. West Florida ranked 12th in Hero Sports' preseason poll.

 
 
Returners

• West Florida brings back a strong core from the 2015 season, including four All-Gulf South Conference players in Burkhardt, Helgadottir, Ward and Emily Vogler.
• In all, UWF brings back 14 letterwinners from last year's team, including goalkeepers Emily Grammer and Katelyn Burkhart. The pair has tallied more than 2,500 minutes over the last two seasons and posted a GAA of 0.91.
• Ward is the team's leading returning goal-scorer, putting nine shots in the back of the net in 2015, while five other players scored at least twice last year.

 
Nearing 250

• UWF women's soccer head coach Joe Bartlinski has totaled 248 career wins as the head man for the Argos. That total gives him the most in GSC history, pacing the field by 148 victories.
• Bartlinski has earned GSC Coach of the Year honors five times in his career and has twice been named the NSCAA National Coach of the Year. In 2009, he was named the coach for the GSC Women's Soccer All-Time Team, as announced by the conference.
• 2015 marked the 12th time in Joe Bartlinski's 15 seasons as the head of the UWF women's soccer program that the Argonauts won at least 15 games in a season

 
For information on all UWF athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.