Aug. 20, 2011
NORFOLK,VA- The ODU Soccer Monarchs, who have reached the NCAA College Cup second round seven of the last nine years return to action Sunday when they travel to Washington, DC for an exhbition match against George Washington at 5 p.m.at MountVernon Field. The Monarchs are pre-season ranked 26th by College Soccer News and 34th by TopDrawerSoccer.com.
The match will be a family reunion as the Colonials head coach George Lidster, the father of ODU senior forward Daniel Lidster has announced that he will retire at the conclusion of the 2011 season after 24 years at the helm of the Colonials' program.
Coach Lidster, who came to GW in 1987 after serving as an assistant coach under the late Gordon Bradley at George Mason, has coached the Colonials for 23 years from 1987-96 and 1998 until present. He is the program's all-time leader in victories with 191 entering the 2011 campaign, a win total that currently ranks him 45th among active NCAA Division I head coaches. Under Coach Lidster's direction, the Colonials have made three trips to the NCAA Tournament (1989, 2002, 2004), and wonthe Atlantic 10 title in 2002 and 2004. In 1989, he led GW to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament and a team-record 14 victories. GW defeated JMU, 3-0 earlier this week.
In 2010 Daniel scored the game winning goal against Northeastern as he made fourstarts for the Monarchs.
ODU opened the exhibition season last Tuesday with a 2-0 victory over Virginia Techas sophomore Gideon Asante scored both goals and junior Jordan LeBlanc assisted onthe first goal. The Monarchs domnated play, outshooting the Hokies, 17-6.
The Monarchs open regular season play, Sunday, Aug. 28th at 7 p.m. when they hostNavy.