The Illinois State womens soccer team kicks off the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Friday at 7:30 p.m. as they take on the SMS Bears at Sportport in Maryland Heights, Mo. Already this season, the Birds (10-5-2) faced the Bears (9-8-3) and walked away with a 2-0 win on October 19.
Head coach Pete Kowall doesnt think this years previous game against SMS is representative of what the Bears can do.
When we played them two of their kids were out with injuries, Kowall said. I think they are back now and their team will be ready to go on Friday. And were excited to get back to the tournament and hopefully we will fare better this year than we have in the past,
SMS, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, defeated No. 6 Drury, 2-1 on Sunday, November 2 in order to advance to Fridays Semi-Final match. The No. 2 seeded Redbirds earned a bye into the Semi-Finals after finishing 6-1 in the Valley, earning a share of the regular season Valley title. Illinois State was awarded the No. 2 seed after falling to Drake, who also had one loss in the Valley, but earned the No. 1 seed since they beat the Redbirds head-to-head.
It will be the sixth time that the Redbirds have faced SMS in the Valley Tournament. The Birds have managed a win in just one of those games and that was back in 1998 when they came away with a 3-0 victory in the opening round. The Birds have faced SMS a total of 13 times and have compiled an 8-3-2 record against them.
Everyones excited and were ready to play, senior goalkeeper Allison Farrington said. I think our practices this week have been hard and theyve prepared us for this weekend. This is what weve been waiting for all season.
The Redbirds enter the weekend ranked among the top 20 in the nation in two defensive categories. They are No. 12 in shutout percentage (0.59) and No. 18 in goals against average (0.677). Illinois State has given up just two goals in Valley action this season...one to Creighton and the other to Drake. Co-captain Farrington also has a nationally ranking to her credit. She is No. 7 in the nation in goals against average (0.476). In 14 contests this year, she has allowed just six goals and has compiled eight shutouts on her way to an 8-2-2 record.
Last year Illinois State made it to the Valley Championship, where they faced Creighton. Creighton was the only Valley team that had beaten the Birds during the regular season. The Redbirds fell just shy of winning the title and a trip to the NCAA College Cup as the Bluejays scored with 19 seconds left in overtime to earn a 1-0 victory.
Seniors Tiffany DeClark and Dana Schulte enter Fridays game after just receiving word that they were both selected to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District V First Team. Schulte, a St. Charles, Mo. native, carries a 3.75 GPA in Marketing and DeClark, a Buffalo Grove, Ill. native, carries a 3.95 GPA in Public Relations.
