College soccer: Dozier has high hopes for Lady Falcons and her scoring prowess

The entire Heartland Conference should know who much of the UTPB women’s soccer team’s offense is going to run through.

Junior forward Hannah Dozier scored 15 goals and had five assists last season to earn Heartland Conference Offensive MVP honors along with NCAA Division II All-America honorable mention honors.

“She’s going to be a marked person this year,” UTPB soccer coach Dennis Peterson said. “Obviously, they’re going to know of her going through the conference. Last year was her first year in the Heartland Conference. I think her athletic ability alone is enough to get her by. The stuff that they’re going to do to her, she’s going to have enough to break through.”

Dozier transferred from Eastern New Mexico in Portales, where she earned Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year and second team All-Lone Star Conference honors in 2007. She finished that season with eight goals and two assists and sat out the 2008 season because of transfer rules.

A Midland High graduate, Dozier said she transferred to UTPB because of its education program.

She hopes to continue her offensive prowess and has set a goal of leading the Heartland Conference in scoring.

“I want to get that record,” the Midland High graduate said. “You have to be something. You can’t have low expectations about yourself.”

It won’t be easy, of course.

Teams will be better prepared for the offense she can produce for the Lady Falcons, who open their season at 2 p.m. today by playing host to Schreiner University.

 “She’s going to have to play off that, but I have no doubt that she’s one of the strongest players on our team,” Peterson said. “She’s pretty freakish anyway. She’s going to be able to withstand anything they throw at her. It’s just going to be a matter of figuring out the double teams.”

Peterson said if other teams consistently focus on Dozier, UTPB has players that will take advantage.

That group includes senior and Permian graduate Letha Irvin and second-team all-conference player Kaylen Gerky, a pair of midfielders who helped the Lady Falcons go 6-12-1 overall last season and 3-8-1 in conference.

“We have a good group of girls,” Dozier said. “We’ve really clicked this season. It took us a while last season to kind of get together, but I think it’s going to be good this season.”