The Illinois State womens soccer team will travel to Northern Arizona this weekend to take on the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona and the Cowgirls of Wyoming in the LaQuinta Mountain Soccer Classic. This weekend will be the first time that the Birds have met either team.
Its kind of cool to be playing against teams we dont know much about, said head coach Pete Kowall. This weekend will be a good experience for us playing two different teams we have never seen before.
The Birds, 3-1 will first take on the Lumberjacks, in a Friday evening match up at 7 p.m. Then on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. they will meet Wyoming.
The Lumberjacks, 0-2-1, are coming off a two-game losing streak, with losses against University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Kent State.
Last weekend, Wyoming, 1-1-2, hosted the Brown and Gold Shootout tying for second in their own tournament. The Cowgirls recorded two ties in the tourney against Vermont, 1-1, and Delaware, 1-1, both in double overtime.
The Birds will look to record a couple of wins this weekend after a loss to Central Michigan last weekend in the Holiday Inn Classic.
Our goal is to play much better defensively and offensively this weekend, said Kowall.
Even though the Birds could not pick up both wins last weekend, Jaclyn Rucinsky was named the Missouri Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week. With two goals, Rucinsky was the leading scorer for the Birds in the Holiday Inn Classic at Oakland University.
I was very surprised that I was named the offensive player of the week, said Rucinsky. It wasnt just me though, it was a whole team effort to score those two goals.
Rucinsky was able to score the tying goal in the 78th minute of play against Oakland to give the Birds the momentum to win the game, 2-1. The goal marked Rucinskys first of the season.
The sophomore midfielder then went on to put another goal on the stat sheet with the lone goal for the Birds in the Central Michigan game. The goal by Rucinsky however was not enough to push the Birds past Central Michigan.
It was nice for Jaclyn to be selected for this award, she has been working very hard in practice and trying to score for us, said Kowall. She scored two crucial goals for us in the tournament.
