June 11, 2008

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Savanna Russo, a defender who spent the last three seasons at Louisiana Tech, will play for the East Carolina Women's Soccer program in the 2008 season, according to an announcement by head coach Rob Donnenwirth on Wednesday afternoon.

Russo played in 34 matches in the 2005-07 seasons for the Lady Techsters while starting 30 of them. Her freshman campaign saw her play 1,234 minutes, the second most on the squad as she helped Louisiana Tech post six shutouts. Additionally, Russo tallied her first collegiate points with two assists against Belhaven College and her first goals (two) in a win over William Carey College. That year, she earned her first of two consecutive Western Athletic Conference (WAC) All-Academic Team honors as well as being named WAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week and honorable mention All-State by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA).

Russo continued her strong play in her sophomore campaign, earning 14 starts and playing every minute in 13 of those contests. She scored a goal against Centenary and recorded an assist at Idaho to help the Lady Techsters to their first-ever WAC draw.

The Albuquerque, N.M. native excelled under head coach Tom Hurshman at Eldorado High School as she helped the Eagles to three consecutive Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) regional championships, a 2002 state championship game appearance and three District 5-5A titles. Additionally, Russo was twice named first-team all-state, first-team all-district and first-team All-Metro by the Albuquerque Tribune. She has been a member of the New Mexico Olympic Development Program since 2001.

"Savanna brings experience to our backline," stated Donnenwirth. "It was great getting her integrated into the team this spring. She is tough and distributes the ball well. "