LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A small period of rest will be followed by big challenges for the No. 15 Bellarmine University women's soccer team.
With Great Lakes Valley Conference play now underway, the Knights (5-0, 2-0 GLVC) will remain at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium this weekend, welcoming unbeaten Drury (2-0-2, 1-0-1) for a 3:55 p.m. (ET) contest on Friday before hosting Missouri S&T (1-3, 0-2) at noon Sunday. Both the Panthers and Miners advanced to the conference tournament last season.
Bellarmine is off to its first 5-0 start in program history. The first four of those victories were shutouts, the longest string of blanking opponents since the 2002 team posted five straight shutouts early in that season.
Bellarmine, which climbed three spots in the latest national rankings, is coming off a 3-0 week of play. The Knights defeated Ohio Dominican 1-0 in their final nonconference match of the regular season before downing McKendree 1-0 in the GLVC opener and triumphing 2-1 over Illinois Springfield. The matches capped a span of five contests in 10 days.
"Last week was a combination of trying to get better and surviving the stretch physically," BU Coach
Chris Tinius said. "I thought we played very well at times but are still searching for consistency within games. I'm very proud of our ability to find a way to win all five games and not giving up a goal in the flow of play. We picked up a few injuries, mainly to goalkeepers, but I think we were able to rotate some starts and minutes to keep the field players as fresh as possible."
Bellarmine and Drury are two of six GLVC teams that went unbeaten over the first weekend of conference games, although the Knights and Lewis are the only 2-0 squads. The Panthers led off with a scoreless tie at William Jewell before claiming a huge 2-1 home victory over Rockhurst, which was predicted to finish second in the conference behind BU in the preseason coaches' poll. Kerri Morris and Ciara O'Brien have scored two goals apiece for Drury.
"We expect a quality team that is organized and features some very good returning attacking talent," Tinius said. "They are off to a fast, unbeaten start just like us and should be playing with a lot of confidence right now."
Missouri S&T dropped its GLVC opener 3-0 to Rockhurst and was edged 2-1 by William Jewell. The Knights and Miners met twice last season and had two very different outcomes, with BU taking the regular season match 3-0 before S&T captured a 2-0 victory in the GLVC Tournament en route to an appearance in the title game.
"It's a small sample size at this point, and S&T was on the wrong side of a close one (against William Jewell) on Sunday," Tinius said. "Their record needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Joe (McCauley, a former women's head coach at BU) is a good coach and will have them prepared just as he did on both of their trips here last fall."
In the first weekend of GLVC action, 13 of the 16 teams garnered at least one win or one tie.
"Any team can win or lose on any day in this conference," Tinius said. "Again, it's a small sample size, but I think the results of the first weekend already indicate the parity in the league.
"Parity can come about in a couple of ways. One would be the top of the league backing up. I don't think that's the case at all. From what I've seen in person and on film combined with what I've heard from other coaches, the parity is coming from an improved product across the board. Hopefully that's good news for the league when it's time to hand out at-large bids (to the Division II NCAA Tournament), but from the standpoint of your weekly preparation it's not very a relaxing feeling."
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Drury (2-0-2, 1-0-1 GLVC) at Bellarmine (5-0, 2-0 GLVC)Date: Friday, September 18
Time: 3:55 p.m. (ET)
Venue: Owsley B. Frazier Stadium
VideoLive StatsMissouri S&T at BellarmineDate: Sunday, September 20
Time: Noon (ET)
Venue: Owsley B. Frazier Stadium
VideoLive Stats
