LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University women's soccer team remains at home in welcoming ASUN counterpart Jacksonville for an 11 a.m. (ET) contest Sunday at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.

Both the Knights (2-4-5, 0-3 ASUN) and Dolphins (5-5-2, 0-3) are seeking their first win in league play.

LAST TIME OUT
Bellarmine dropped a 2-0 decision to North Florida on Thursday night at Frazier Stadium. The Knights limited the ASUN preseason co-favorite to two shots in a scoreless first half.

However, Thais Reiss, the reigning ASUN Player of the Year, found the net in her seventh different game this season in the 61st minute.

"I thought Thursday night was our most complete effort since the opening game of the year," Knights Coach Chris Tinius said. "Our work rate over the entire field was extremely high. …Thais is one of, if not the, biggest killer in the league. When the best player on the field got her chance to change the game, she did with a great finish."

ABOUT JACKSONVILLE
Jacksonville is coming off 2-0 league losses to Lipscomb and Eastern Kentucky and opened ASUN play with a 1-0 setback to Central Arkansas.

However, the Dolphins have also proven to be dangerous — in each of their five wins, they scored two goals or more and on three of those occasions, they netted at least four goals.

Selma Fohrer, Beyonce Robinson and Olivia Abdallah have collected three goals apiece among five Dolphins who have scored multiple goals.

"Jacksonville is similar to us in a lot of ways," Tinius said. "They are going through their own transition in a year two with a new coach. You can see improvement in their organization and how they want to play. Like us, they have been scrappy and kept themselves in games but struggled to find goals of late. I would expect two teams hungry to find their first result in league play and gain some momentum into the important divisional games."

BOXED OUT
Even during this rough patch, Tinius is seeing a lot of solid play from the Knights — but needs to see more in the spaces that primarily define the bottom line.

"We competed very hard in the 80 yards in the middle of the field (against UNF), but we don't consistently compete the same way in the two goalboxes," he said. "We continue to give up some opportunities that don't match how difficult we make things through the rest of the field, and there was no reason for us not to have taken even a single shot with some of the positions we put ourselves in during the second half. Many things about what we are doing are on the right track, but most games are decided in 36 yards split over both ends of the field. When we compete and win more battles in there, we'll win some games." 

DIVISION AWAITS
Jacksonville represents the final non-divisional ASUN game for Bellarmine, which finishes the regular season with five West Division matchups. The Knights are hoping to build some momentum leading into those critical contests.

"Sunday is important for a lot of reasons: You want to win and you want to have a tiebreaker in at least one crossover scenario, but most importantly we need to commit to the process for the entirety of two games in a row," Tinius said. "Regardless of the result, if we can do that I'll feel like we're ready for the fight in the divisional games, which in reality it what the whole season boils down to."

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