The Illinois State womens soccer team opens its conference season at Indiana State Friday at 3 p.m., and will continue action on the road as they take on Evansville Sunday at 1 p.m.
Head coach Pete Kowall and the Birds are looking forward to opening the conference season.
Its always exciting to get the conference season underway, said Kowall. Indiana State and Evansville are good teams. Both teams will be a good challenge for us in our opening weekend. To win these two games, we are going to have to play very well.
Fridays game against Indiana State will be the first conference contest for both teams. In 2003 conference play, the Sycamores were 1-6, tying for sixth place with Evansville in the conference regular season. Currently the Sycamores are 4-7-0, with sophomore Nichole Tiggs leading the way with five goals and three assists. Illinois State owns a 4-0 all-time record against the Sycamores.
Evansville, 1-7-0, will open their conference season on Friday at Northern Iowa. Sophomore Sarah Groves has recorded two goals and one assist leading the Purple Aces this season. The Aces, 1-6, in MVC play in 2003 tied for sixth place with Indiana State. The Birds hold a close advantage over the Aces 5-4-1.
Last season the Birds took down both the Sycamores and the Aces, 2-0.
In the 2003 conference regular season, Illinois State finished in a tie for first sharing the title with Drake. However, the Birds won the Valley Tournament for the first time and will look to do so again this season.
Starting this weekend, these next six games will be very important in regard to who makes the tournament and seeding, said Kowall. Its important that we play well this weekend and get off to a good start.
