WOMEN'S SOCCER

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Anna-Lesa Calvert

Tough Openers

After starting the 2004 campaign 0-4, the 2005 University at Buffalo women's soccer team has already gotten off to a stronger start, beating Army, 3-2, in the second game of the BAE Systems Classic at West Point on Sunday.

The win came despite the Bulls playing Army, ranked 12th in the Northeast region by SoccerBuzz.com. Buffalo's early schedule is loaded with tough opponents, as Buffalo lost to Lehigh, 2-0, in the first game of the BAE Systems Classic. Lehigh, which won the tournament, was predicted to finish second in the Patriot League.

The schedule gets no easier this weekend, as Buffalo travels to Central Florida to face Jacksonville on Friday before facing the Southeast Region's sixth-ranked team in Central Florida on Sunday.

Youth Movement

Buffalo has gotten an immediate contribution from a recruiting class ranked 16th in the Northeast by SoccerBuzz.com, as Brooke McCalla (Pickering, Ontario/Dunbarton), Janessa Banwell (Toronto, Ontario/Birchmount Park) and Nikki Wilson (El Paso, TX/Franklin) cracked the starting lineup in both games last weekend. McCalla and Banwell, club soccer teammates for Unionville-Milliken, also served as catalysts for the upset of regionally-ranked Army, as McCalla served up a goal and an assist and Banwell put in the go-ahead goal.

Goalkeeper Reaches Milestone

With her seventh save against Army on Sunday, senior Anna-Lesa Calvert (Dallas, TX/Bryan Adams) joined an exclusive MAC club, as the fourth-year starter reached 250 career saves. She is one of only six goaltenders in MAC history to reach the milestone and is currently fifth in MAC history with 251 saves, 222 behind career leader Erika Flanders of Bowling Green (1999-2002).

In two games, Calvert has 12 saves, just 49 saves shy of becoming just the third goalkeeper in MAC history to stop 300 shots in a career.

Natalia Crofut

Crofut Closes in on MAC List

Senior Natalia Crofut (East Aurora, NY/Iroquois) is nine points shy of tying Kent State's Nicki Downey and Ohio's Abby Leopold with 55 career points, 24th in MAC history, after earning an assist on Banwell's go-ahead goal against Army.