EVANSVILLE, IN – The University of Southern Indiana men's soccer team hopes to nail down a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament with wins Friday at McKendree University and a home match Sunday against Bellarmine University for Senior Day. Kick off at McKendree is 7:30 p.m., while start time for Senior Day against Bellarmine is set for noon.
USI will honor its seven seniors –
Mauricio Paniagua (Santa Cruz, Bolivia),
Ryan Moll (Evansville, Indiana),
Danny Pratte (Florissant, Missouri),
Ben Dempsey (Evansville, Indiana),
Jeffrey McClure (Indianapolis, Indiana),
Austin Andrekus (St. Charles, Illinois), and
Trey Fosburgh (Collinsville, Illinois) – prior to the match with Bellarmine.
The Screaming Eagles (8-5-0, 7-4-0 GLVC) start the week in the same spot they were last week, holding down the sixth slot in the upcoming league playoff. USI also is percentage points away from being fifth and a game-and-a-half out of fourth in the conference standings.
The Eagles lost their only match last week, falling to GLVC-leading and seventh-ranked Drury University, 2-1, on the road. USI's second match of the three-match road swing at Missouri University of Science & Technology was cancelled due to weather.
Leading the USI surge is McClure, who has recorded a career-best and team-high 23 points on nine goals and five assists. McClure is tied for fifth in goals scored and assists in the GLVC.
On defense, junior goalkeeper
Jeffrey Neidlinger (Carmel, Indiana) leads the Eagles with a 0.78 goals against average in nine matches and 810 minutes of action. He has made 36 saves and posted a pair of shutouts.
Neidlinger's 0.78 GAA is 0.08 off the pace set Matt Blauvelt, who set the USI single season record with a 0.70 GAA and led the Eagles to a GLVC title in 1990.
The Bearcats of McKendree (8-6-0, 6-6-0 GLVC) are in their first year of GLVC and NCAA Division II action. McKendree broke a three-match losing streak last weekend with a 3-2 overtime win over nationally ranked William Jewell College.
USI leads the all-time series with McKendree, 3-2-1, with the last meeting going to the Eagles, 3-0, at Strassweg Field in 2002.
The Knights of Bellarmine (7-3-3, 6-2-3 GLVC) start their week Tuesday with a make-up match with the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Bellarmine, which hosts Kentucky Wesleyan College Friday before coming to Evansville, is 5-1-3 in its last nine matches.
The Eagles lead the all-time series with the Knights, 20-12-1, but dropped five of the last six matches to the Knights. The last two matches have gone to overtime before Bellarmine scored the deciding goal.
