Women's Soccer Starts Weekend In Springfield At Drury

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Women's Soccer team will reach the halfway point of the conference season this weekend as they split between home and road for the second straight week. The Bulldogs will play at Drury University on Friday at 11 a.m. and return home to face Missouri S&T on Sunday at noon.

Five teams are log jammed in the GLVC with four wins through the first six games in the conference schedule. Truman is amongst those teams at 4-2 after taking a road game at Missouri-St. Louis 2-0 and winning in overtime 2-1 over Maryville University. The Bulldogs are the only GLVC team with eight overall wins.

Truman will have to keep their attention up when they play two teams in the bottom half of the standings this weekend. Drury is the only winless team in the conference at 0-6 and are 0-9-1 overall while Missouri S&T is 1-4-1 in the GLVC and 2-6-1 overall. Truman has not been defeated in seven straight over the Lady Panthers and have won their last two matchups while against the Miners, Truman has won 15 straight.

In this week's United Soccer Coaches Association Top 25 poll, the Bulldogs are one of six additional teams that received votes but not enough to crack the survey. In the regional poll put out by the coaches group, Truman is fourth out of 10 teams trailing Grand Valley (Mich.) State, Ferris (Mich.) State and Saginaw Valley (Mich.) State. The poll that matters the most will be the NCAA Regional Poll and that will first come out on October 17.

The Bulldogs lead the GLVC in goals scored with 20 this year and are second in the conference in goals allowed with seven. Eleven different players have hit the back of the net for the team with Hanna Burke, Faith Branson and Hanna Liljgren each scoring three goals apiece. Burke is tied for fourth in the league rankings with 10 points having added four assists to her three goals.

Of the seven goals allowed by the Bulldogs, four have come in the first 10 minutes of a match, one other has come six minutes into the second half and another came on a penalty 34 seconds into an overtime session.

Truman has played four overtime matches with three wins and one loss. Burke, Branson and Mia Coyne have struck OT winners for the Bulldogs this season. The team played five extra time matches last season, all ending in draws and 10 in the last two with nine draws and one win. One of those matches was decided in penalties in the conference tournament.

Coyne had the goal and the assist in the tying score against Maryville on Sunday. The Bulldogs exacted a measure of revenge over the Saints, who ended their season in the conference tournament last year. Coyne assisted on Paige Peterson's tying goal in the 20^th minute after Maryville scored seven minutes into the match.

On Friday, two of Truman's three Hanna's scored. Liljegren scored in the 26^th minute and Burke added an insurance in the 79^th minute for the 2-0 win over UMSL. It was the fifth shutout of the season for Beth Hopwood.

Hopwood is tied atop the GLVC rankings in shutouts with Quincy's Emilee Autry with five and is third in the conference in goals against average with a 0.68.

Drury has dropped nine straight matches since a season opening tie over Christian Brothers (Tenn.) on August 31. The Lady Panthers found a scoring touch in their last match against William Jewell with three goals, two by Brinnae Cooper, in a 4-3 loss at home on Sunday. Cooper has three of the team's seven goals this season. Drury has been outshot 185-87 in their 10 matches and have allowed 23 goals. Drury is managed by former Truman men's head coach Alf Bilbao, who also played and lettered for Truman.

Missouri S&T is 2-6-1 with victories over Drury and non-conference Emporia State. The Miners have six goals on the season with four coming in their win over Emporia State. Morgan Sikora has half of the tallies this year. Liz Carrano and Kristin Steins have split time in net for Missouri S&T this year. Carrano has a 1.48 goals-against average and Steins has a 1.56 GAA.

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Players Mentioned

#22 Hanna Burke: M; 5' 7"; Redshirt Sophomore

#15 Paige Peterson: M; 5' 7"; Sophomore

#0 Beth Hopwood: GK; 5' 7"; Freshman

#3 Faith Branson: F; 5' 6"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#22 Hanna Burke
: 5' 7"; Redshirt Sophomore
: M

#15 Paige Peterson
: 5' 7"; Sophomore
: M

#0 Beth Hopwood
: 5' 7"; Freshman
: GK

#3 Faith Branson
: 5' 6"; Freshman
: F