Irish National Team members to face Malta on Wednesday

RINDGE, N.H. (October 21, 2003) - While most of the No. 10-ranked Franklin Pierce women's soccer team enjoys a week between Saturday's 3-0 win over Le Moyne College and this weekend's match at Southern New Hampshire University, ranked fourth in the New England Region, sophomores Laura Hislop (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Sonya Hughes (Balbriggan, Ireland) are gearing up for tomorrow's Women's European Championship qualifier in Malta (12:30 p.m., EST).            

The pair are veterans of the Irish National team, which currently sits atop Group Five standings with a 1-0-2 record and five points through its first three matches. Tomorrow's match in Malta will round out the first half of Ireland's qualifying schedule with its remaining four matches slated for the spring. Ireland currently leads both Romania and Croatia by a single point, with Bosnia-Herzegovina two points behind. Malta enters tomorrow's match in search of its first point.

In Ireland's last match, it had to rally for a 2-2 draw in Dublin with the match-tying goal coming in extra time on June 28. Hughes is expected to start in midfield for Ireland tomorrow, while Hislop's usual role is as a reserve.

Hislop currently leads the Northeast-10 Conference with 53 points in her first season at Franklin Pierce. She also leads the Conference with 17 assists, while her 18 goals are second only to teammate Meghan Welcome's (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) 20. Last week, Hislop cracked the Ravens career scoring list, as her 53 points are already good for 23^rd in program history. A three-time Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Week, she set a program record earlier this season when she totaled 13 points in a 10-1 win over Stonehill College in which she also matched a program record with five markers.

Hughes has also made a big impact for the Ravens in her first season in Rindge. She ranks second to Hislop in the NE-10 with 12 assists to go with three goals for 18 points. Hughes has registered a point in ten of the Ravens 13 victories this season.

The Irish pair are expected in uniform when Franklin Pierce (13-2, 11-1 NE-10) returns to action on Saturday at Southern New Hampshire University at 1 p.m. The two teams enter the match in position for an NCAA Tournament bid with three weeks remaining in the regular season.