Oct. 22, 2009

RUSTON, La. - Kat McCullough and Hikari Kurokawa will play in their final home game as a Lady Techster on Friday at 4 p.m. as Louisiana Tech hosts New Mexico State at the Lady Techster Soccer Field.

Tech (11-5-1, 0-5 WAC) is coming off a 2-1 loss to Hawai'i last Friday. Junior Kiva Gresham's sixth goal of the season was assisted by sophomore Scotti Culton for the team's school-record 41st assist of the season. LA Tech has broken seven team records this season including three single-game records (goals, assists and points) and four for single-season records (goals, points, assists and wins).

"The ladies are working hard on their game and have been improving steadily," head coach Kevin Sherry said. "They take heart from the fact that they have been competitive in every WAC game this season. The luck of the bounce hasn't been going our way of late but, as a team, they never give up and will continue to give 100 percent effort until their luck changes."

New Mexico State (9-5-1, 4-0-1 WAC) is in the first year of their program and is undefeated in the conference. They are playing well as of late having not recorded a loss in their last seven games and going 6-1 in that span. The Aggies are 4-3-1 on the road and have outscored their opponents 22-17 overall this season. Jazmin Cardoso leads the team with six goals. Goalkeeper Katie Graul leads a stingy Aggie defense that has only given up three goals and provided three shutouts through five conference games.

"We are expecting yet another tough game against the WAC leaders," Sherry said. "New Mexico State, like most teams in the WAC, has soccer powerhouse California on their borders to use as their recruiting base, and as a result this will be one more tough challenge for our young team."

A recognition of this year's seniors, McCullough and Kurokawa, will be held before the 4 p.m. start time.