NORMAL, Ill. - State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament implications will be on the line, when the Illinois State soccer team (10-5-0, 4-1-0) hosts Creighton (9-5-2, 4-0-1) in its regular-season finale Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Adelaide Street Field.
"We have a huge game here tomorrow [against Creighton] and we need a positive result to be in the top two in the conference, which is where we always want to be," head coach Drew Roff said. "I think we have the veteran leadership and the players that want to be a team that can make some noise and get to the NCAA Tournament. We have to remember that Sunday's game [against Milwaukee] is over and that it is all about Thursday."
The Redbirds will have an opportunity to claim their fourth MVC regular-season championship with a win over the Bluejays, while Creighton will be looking to bring the MVC regular-season title back to Omaha for the second-straight season. Entering Thursday's match in Normal, Creighton is tied with Missouri State atop the MVC standings, while ISU sits alone in third.
Illinois State can claim the regular-season championship with a win over Creighton and a Missouri State tie or loss to Evansville. The Redbirds can clinch the No. 2 seed in the State Farm MVC Tournament and avoid playing an opening-round match with a win over Creighton, regardless of the MSU/UE outcome.
ISU has won its last four matches and is coming off a historic 3-1 win over then No. 10 Milwaukee. The win was the first in program history over a team ranked in the national top ten. Sophomore Anna Stinson gave ISU an early 1-0 advantage in the seventh minute, before the Panthers answered back with a goal just over two minutes later. Freshman Rachel Tejada notched her 17th goal of the season in the 62nd minute for the eventual game-winner and senior Jessica Carlson converted a late penalty kick to cap the victory.
"We have been trying to put together a full 90 minutes of quality soccer and I think Milwaukee brought that out in us," Roff said. "We put everything together, everyone did their job and it was a great at Adelaide Street Field. It is something we will remember for a long time and it was a big moment for our program."
Creighton enters Thursday's contest unbeaten in eight of its last nine games. The Bluejays return 16 letterwinners and nine starters from last year's squad that captured both the MVC regular-season and State Farm MVC Tournament titles. Reigning MVC Player of the Year Brittney Neumann leads CU with 17 points on eight goals and an assist. Lauren Cingoranelli has recorded a team-high six assists and Andrea Zuniga, this week's MVC Offensive Player of the Week, has hit the back of the net five times. The CU defense has allowed just 13 goals this season and is led by goalkeeper Alicia Montgomery, who boasts a 0.77 goals against average and a .892 save percentage.
"We respect Creighton's program and we know what they bring," Roff said. "It is always a battle between us and it seems like every year this game has implications in how the final standings will end up. The intensity level will be high and I'm sure that both teams will be ready."
Illinois State holds an 11-6-3 advantage in the all-time series with Creighton, but it was the Bluejays that ended ISU's bid for a fourth-straight MVC regular-season title last year in Omaha. CU topped ISU, 2-1, in overtime in last year's regular-season finale to claim the regular-season crown. In the previous 20 matches between the Redbirds and Bluejays, 17 have been decided by one goal or less, including two that were decided by penalty kicks in Valley Tournament matchups.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
