Sept. 3, 2002

WACO, Texas - Baylor soccer head coach Nick Cowell announced Tuesday the addition of junior goalkeeper Monica Housden, who is transferring from North Texas and will be eligible immediately.

Housden played her first two seasons at UNT, where she earned second team All-Sun Belt Conference honors a year ago. In two seasons with the Mean Green, Housden appeared in 37 of team's 40 games. She leaves North Texas as the program's career leader in shutouts (12.5) and saves (202).

A junior from Denton, Texas, Housden started 21 of her team's 22 games as a true freshman in 2000 and notched back-to-back shutouts against Centenary and Texas Tech in her first two collegiate games. Her eight shutouts as a rookie were a team single-season record, and she followed that up with a 0.83 goals-allowed average last season. She also was voted a team co-captain as a sophomore.

Before moving on to North Texas, Housden earned four letters at Ryan High School in Denton, where she earned all-state honors twice and led her team to the state semifinals as a junior.

"Monica is very vocal, and will be able to organize and lead our team from the back," Cowell said. "She is very experienced, and will provide a good role model for Tanya Sena and Morgan Pinter, our other two goalkeepers. It will be good for them to have someone to learn from who has been there, so they can copy that."

Housden has also been selected to try out for the Mexico National Team World Cup Qualifiers in late October, which may cause her to miss some of the Bears' late season games.

"We think it's a great honor for her to be able to represent Baylor in World Cup competition," Cowell said.

Housden is eligible to join the team immediately and will compete for the starting goalkeeper job with Sena, possibly even starting Friday against Rice.