NORMAL, Ill. - Four teams remain in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, as the Illinois State women's soccer team begins its run at the tournament title Friday at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb. The top-seeded Redbirds are set to face the fourth-seeded Drake Bulldogs in the semifinals at 3:30 p.m.
"We are very excited to be heading to Omaha for the conference tournament as the No.1 seed," said head coach Drew Roff. "We know we will have to play our best soccer of the season to achieve our goal of getting to the NCAA tournament, but we have prepared ourselves well. We are looking forward to the challenge."
Illinois State is 5-10-5 all-time in the State Farm MVC Tournament, including a 2-2-1 mark as the No. 1 seed. The Redbirds have tied five MVC Tournament games and advanced on penalty kicks three times. ISU has been the No. 1 seed three times, the last time being in 2007 when ISU fell to Creighton on penalty kicks in the final round. Illinois State and Drake have played three times in tournament history with Drake leading the tournament series over Illinois State, 2-1-0.
The Redbirds (10-6-1, 5-1-0 MVC) won the regular-season meeting with Drake (2-0) Oct. 25, to clinch the regular-season title. Drake (9-8-3, 3-3-0 MVC) leads the all-time series against Illinois State, 5-4-2, and advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over Indiana State in the tournament quarterfinals (Nov. 1).
The Redbirds' regular-season title marked the third-straight conference crown and seventh title in program history, the most titles of any Valley team. On the season, the Redbirds are fourth in program history for points in a season at Illinois State with 96 and goals in a season with 36, while being ranked No. 10 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of American (NSCAA) in the Great Lakes Region for the second-straight week.
Redbird sophomore Jessica Carlson leads the team in points with 23 on the season, moving her to tie for fourth place for points in a season at Illinois State. Carlson also leads the conference in shots per game (3.06), points (23), points per game (1.35), goals (9), goals per game (0.53), assists (5), assists per game (0.29) and game-winning goals (5). Alyssa Schulz has 17 total points on the season and is tied with teammate Rachel Bostick for first in the conference in goals with four in conference play.
Redbird goalkeeper Sasha Reiber is 7-5-1 overall this season and leads the conference in goals-against-average in conference games with 0.55, recording three conference shutouts and five total shutouts on the season. Reiber ranks third at Illinois State for career shutouts with 11.
No. 2 Missouri State and No. 3 Creighton meet in the other semifinal Friday at 6 p.m. The winners of Friday's semifinals will meet in the conference final Sunday at 1 p.m. to battle for the Valley crown and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The championship game will be televised on FSN Midwest, while the semifinals are available on MVC LIVE - the conference's video-streaming package.
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