For the second time in two years, the Illinois State soccer team will face Southwest Missouri State in the semifinals of the 2000 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, Friday at 8 p.m., at the SportPort Complex in St. Louis, Mo.
The Redbirds (14-3), the No 2 seed, will look to eliminate the third-seeded Bears (10-10-1) in a rematch of the same caliber as last year, when ISU fell to SW Missouri State in the semifinals of the conference tournament on penalty kicks, 4-3. The Birds won the regular-season contest against SMS at home, 2-1, in October.
This team is not going in thinking about what happened last year, Redbird head coach Pete Kowall said. This is a brand new tournament, we are playing well, and come tournament time you cannot think about the past, just focus on the task at hand.
Also participating in this years Valley Championship is Evansville, who enters the weekend with the No. 1 ranking and the regular-season crown, and Creighton in the fourth spot. Riding the heels of a seven-game win streak heading into this weekend, Illinois State will look to extend its winning ways against SMS while fighting for its first-ever NCAA birth in the programs history.
Current Valley Offensive Player of the Week Annie Wayland, a sophomore, continues to lead the Birds offense, notching a team-high 20 goals this season, which ties the league record and surpasses the schools, which she set her freshman year with 14. She also holds the ISU record for goals in a career with 34.
While Wayland has been a main force in ISUs success in 2000, the team as a whole has also produced beyond its expectations, setting new marks in the record books with the season still in progress. The team broke records for most goals in a game (7), season (50), most points in a game (15) and shutouts in a season (10).
Kowall continued to comment on the teams success and its playing chemistry heading into the weekend.
The last half of the season, especially in conference play, we played as a team, as a whole, Kowall said. We have been working on passing and getting each other more scoring chances and I think that is what is going to make the difference this weekend. It will be a matter of who can score the goals and so far this season, we have been able to do that.
I was pleased with the way we played against Southwest Missouri St. in the regular season, but that was at home, and we seem to play better at home, Kowall continued. But being in St. Louis will hopefully benefit us, with the late game also, since a lot of our kids are from around that area and the tournament is at a neutral site. Hopefully fan support will help it feel like home.
The winners of Fridays semifinal matches will advance to the Valley final on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 2 p.m.
