DRC Soccer: Pina now teams go to player

[OldTimer]

Soccer: Pina now team’s go-to player

09:04 AM CDT on Sunday, August 29, 2004

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

For the first three years of her college soccer career, Melina Pina was able to quietly build her reputation as one of the top players in the Sun Belt Conference.

Pina finished tied for sixth nationally with 21 goals last season when she was named first team All-Sun Belt Conference.

DRC/Hiroyuki Komae

North Texas soccer player Melinda Pina has quietly built a reputation as one of the Sun Belt Conference’s top scorers the past three seasons. Now, after the graduation of Marilyn Marin, Pina will be the focal point of the Mean Green offense.

Those accomplishments established Pina as a top player, but they couldn’t bring her entirely out of the shadow of her teammate Marilyn Marin. The former UNT forward finished her career as one of the all-time greats in NCAA women’s soccer history last year, leaving Pina as UNT’s top player heading into the 2004 season.

UNT will open the campaign today with a 1 p.m. game against Houston at the Mean Green Soccer Complex.

"This is a big year for Melinda," UNT coach John Hedlund said. "This is her team offensively. We will go through her."

Pina spent the offseason preparing to fill that role while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. UNT was going through offseason workouts in March when Pina suffered the injury, putting her season in doubt.

"I was hoping this would be my big year, but then I had the injury," Pina said. "It’s coming back really fast. We didn’t wait very long. We got right on it when I got hurt."

Pina knew she would only have a few months to recover from surgery, so she and her coaches decided on a special procedure to have the knee repaired.

Pina had an anterior cruciate ligament from a cadaver transplanted into her knee to cut down on the time she would need to recover.

"Melinda is doing remarkably well," Hedlund said. "I didn’t think she would be this far along this soon. She is really not too far from being 100 percent."

That is good news for the Mean Green, which has nine starters back from a team that tied the school record for wins with 15 last season.

Pina and defender Krista Georgas were both named the preseason All-Sun Belt Conf-erence team.

Hedlund added to that core with a recruiting class that could make an immediate impact. Forward Jamie Yates joined the class when she transferred to UNT from the University of Dayton, where she scored six goals as a freshman.

Forward Heather Hutyra and midfielder Dani Slavonic are also expected to contribute immediately.

"Despite the fact we lost [Marin], we will still have a good team," senior midfielder Richelle Magalhaes said. "We added a lot of good players and our chemistry seems to be good."

UNT is hoping its new mix of players will push the team past Denver and to the top of the Sun Belt Conference. The Pioneers have won the last two regular season Sun Belt titles and the last three conference tournament titles.

The Mean Green have been nipping at Denver’s heels during the Pioneers’ reign as the top team in the Sun Belt. UNT beat Denver in overtime during the regular season last year, but lost to the Pioneers in overtime in the finals of the Sun Belt tournament.

"Denver is always a thorn in our side," Hedlund said. "It seems to be us and them battling for the conference title every year."

UNT feels much better about its chances to challenge for the conference title again now that Pina has quickly come back from her offseason knee injury.

"She came back quick," Magalhaes said. "Some of us think she looks even better than before. We look to her for inspiration."

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870.