Soccer begins NSIC play this weekend

The Minnesota State Mavericks soccer team are back in action this weekend as they prepare to play on their home turf for the second weekend in a row.

They will begin Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play, as the women will be looking to take what they learned from last weekend after splitting games by beating Ferris State and fighting hard against Grand Valley State and turn it into two wins this upcoming weekend.

Opening up the weekend on Friday the Mavs will go up against St. Cloud State (1-2-1). St. Cloud is on a bit of a cold streak having played to a 0-0 draw in their last game and losing the two previous games by a tally of 9-0 combined.

The last time these two teams met up was October 25th of last year when the Mavericks topped them by a score of 3-2.

While there is plenty of talent in St. Cloud, one player that may be worth keeping an eye on is Brooke Bares. The Huskies have only scored two goals this entire season and both of those scores came in their week one victory, with both coming from Bares. She also has three shots on goal which is tied for second most on the team behind Hannah Marion’s four.

Closing out the weekend on Sunday, the Mavs will take on the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. The Bulldogs will be entering the weekend sitting with a 2-1-1 record. UMD’s last game was against St. Cloud where they played to a 0-0 draw. Their only loss of the season came from Michigan Tech who defeated them 1-0 in the second week of action.

In the last meeting between Minnesota State and Minnesota Duluth, the Mavericks got the upper hand and defeated the Bulldogs 1-0 on October 23rd of last year.

Minnesota Duluth has scored three goals in their four games this year and each goal was scored by a different player. Among those three is Lizzy Fontes who has one goal as well as recorded an assist to make her the player with the highest point total on the team with three.

The Bulldogs have also been going with a tandem unit at goalie playing both Sisley Ng and Jordan Melby almost equally with Ng having just twenty more minutes of playing time. The two have a combined total of 20 saves between them.

Along the same lines as UMD, Minnesota State has three goals this year with all three of them coming from a different player. Morgan Cottew and Alesha Duccini both with one, and Taylor Kenealy who has one goal and an assist.

Goalie Alexa Rabune has started all three games and has 14 saves.

The Mavericks play St. Cloud State and 4 p.m. Friday, and Minnesota Duluth at noon, Sunday at the Pitch.