Spring College Soccer Schedules

The College season is prepared to start in February so here are the results of my efforts to stay abreast and ready for the upcoming season. I looked at the D1 and D2 programs locally, updated to include the current status of a Spring season to replace the missed Fall season. I’ll dig into the D3, NAIA and NJCAA teams next week. I’ve downloaded the schedules that are available, something I’d suggest you do for your favorite team. Otherwise you’ll be able to find all of them in my College calendar located at the bottom of the right sidebar. It is color coded so Club is green, High School is orange and I use a pink like color for College Women and blue for College Men. I’ll offer a Women’s summary first and then farther down in this report you’ll see the Men’s summary. Spring College Soccer Schedules

WOMEN

SIUE Cougars

The Ohio Valley Conference has announced its regular season soccer schedule for the 2020-21 season, which was postponed from the fall to the spring due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The spring schedule will feature a 10-match conference only schedule which will be played over a six-week period. Matches will be contested on Tuesdays and Fridays. The first conference matchup is scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 2 and the regular season will conclude April 6.

Details on the OVC Tournament will be announced at a later date. The NCAA will announce the selections for a revised 48-team bracket on Sunday, April 18. This year’s field will include 31 automatic qualifiers and 17 at-large bids. The Finals are scheduled for May 13-17. I’ve also uploaded the Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) Redhawks since they do such a good job recruiting the St. Louis area. You may even see Head Coach Heather Nelson at WWT Soccer Park on the regular as her youngest daughter Justi plays for the 2004 SLSG ECNL team. For more about Coach Nelson, check out this podcast interview from last Fall. The Redhawks signed one local player and two from SE Missouri to join the eleven area players already on the roster.

The Cougars will open play Tuesday March 2nd at Eastern Kentucky but will return on Friday March 5th for their home opener against Austin Peay. Five home games although not SEMO who will host the Cougars on Tuesday March 23rd. The team added six locals including GK Leigha Riley from FZS who’s a favorite for having purchased an action shot from me for her recruiting photo. Thanks Leigha!

SLU Billikens

The Atlantic 10 (A-10) Conference has not published any information on a possible Spring 2021 season. As I tweeted earlier this week there are five East Coast teams who have published schedules that are heavily weighted towards Conference games. They even mention an A-10 Tournament the weekend of April 16-18 that would lead into the NCAA D1 bracketing I mention above. Nothing from the Billikens however. Since I began this effort, the Post-Dispatch offered a report that notes Shields’ team will play seven nonconference and eight conference games. The women play against Kansas City on Feb. 7 in their opener (UMKC I assume) per the report.

GLVC

The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) announced its men’s and women’s soccer schedule for the 2021 spring season on October 15th. The schedule features an eight-week, balanced slate that ensures the league’s safe return to competition during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Conference’s 15 teams will compete in a 14-match, single round-robin schedule beginning on Feb. 26, 2021.

The quarterfinals of the GLVC Soccer Championship Tournament will take place on Monday, April 19, followed by the semifinals and finals on April 23 and 25 at Lindenwood’s Hunter Stadium in St. Charles, Missouri. Spring College Soccer Schedules

Lindenwood Lions

The Lions will open the season at Illinois-Springfield on February 26th before hosting Quincy in their home opener on Sunday afternoon, February 28th. They host Rockhurst, SBU and the other local GLVC opponents (Maryville, UMSL and McKendree). They finish the regular season at home against Lewis on April 16th. Lindenwood Lions

The Lions played to a 7-9-1 overall record in 2019, including a 6-8-1 record versus their conference opponents as they opened their GLVC account. Included in that record was an impressive 4-2-1 mark from Hunter Stadium in St. Charles, Mo. The Lions are projected to return a large part of their core group from 2019, including starters at several key positions. The Lions will receive an offensive boost from the return of Morgan Weller, the team’s leading scorer from 2018, who missed the 2019 season due to injury. The team added six players last Fall, all from the St. Louis area.

Maryville Saints

The Saints open the season at home against Quincy University on Friday February 26th with the Truman State Bulldogs visiting Sunday February 28th to begin the season. They will also host SBU, Drury, McKendree and Southern Indiana, closing with Illinois Springfield. The team qualified for the GLVC playoffs for the third consecutive year, falling to #3 seed Rockhurst in the opening round. The Saints enter the tournament with a 10-5-1 overall record and finished with a 9-5-1 mark in conference play. The nine wins in the league are the most victories that Maryville has had in conference play since joining the GLVC. Maryville Saints

McKendree Bearcats

The Bearcats are coming off their fourth consecutive year of advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The team finished 16-4-3 overall after defeating Ashland University in the first round before falling to eventual National Champion Grand Valley State in the second round. The were the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) regular season champion. Despite losing in PKs to Southern Indiana in the Tournament Final, the Bearcats advanced to the NCAA while finishing 13-3-2 overall and 10-2-2 in GLVC regular season play. McKendree Bearcats

They will open their season at Indy before returning home Sunday February 28th to host Lewis. They will also host Truman State, Jewell, Drury, Missouri S&T and finish the regular season with home games against UMSL and Southern Indiana in April.

The team announced thirteen new players for the 2020-2021 season, eight initially and another five new signees in the Fall, twelve of whom are from the bi-State area. An additional seven are headed to campus next August.

UMSL Tritons

The Tritons open their season with a pair of home games in late February, starting with Lewis on the 26th and Illinois-Springfield on the 28th. They will also host Jewell, Rockhurst, Missouri S&T, Maryville and Indy. The team will open the season with a new Head Coach – Maddi Moon was hired from Central Missouri the top D2 program in the State. The team finished with a 5-11-1 record for the season, 5-9-1 in the GLVC. UMSL Tritons

Moon has signed seven players for next season, with transfer Cammie Robinson (Eureka) joining from D1 Missouri State this Spring.

MEN

SIUE Cougars

The Cougars have one season remaining in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) but the league hasn’t made any Spring schedule announcements at this point. SIUE has also announced they’ll return to the Missouri Valley Conference in the 2021-2022 season (yeah!!) which they never should have left for the regional competition with Missouri State and Bradley as well as Loyola as they continue to grab a key player every year (Billy Hency, John Gates). I’ll miss seeing Akron, a top national program headed by Granite City native Jared Embick but I really enjoy the regional competition that the MVC offers, just like the annual basketball championship at the Enterprise Center that draws good crowds.

3 days left until we are back on the field! pic.twitter.com/MBRQQ5ZkIC

— SIUE Men's Soccer (@SIUEMensSoccer) January 16, 2021

SLU Billikens

Like the women, no information on when/if the Atlantic 10 (A-10) will play a season this Spring. As I noted in a tweet earlier this week, there are four men’s teams on the the East Coast who have published schedules that are heavily weighted to Conference play but nothing from the Conference or the Billikens. The SLU men are scheduled to open the season Feb. 3 at home against Kansas City per a report by the Post-Dispatch however. Kalish put together a seven-game nonconference schedule that will be followed by six A-10 games.

Lindenwood Lions

The Lions will open the season at Illinois-Springfield on February 26th before hosting Quincy in their home opener on Sunday afternoon, February 28th. They host Rockhurst, SBU and the other local GLVC opponents (Maryville, UMSL and McKendree). They finish the regular season at home against Lewis on April 16th. Lindenwood Lions

The Lindenwood men’s soccer team wrapped up the 2019 season, its first as a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), with a 7-7-4 record, including a 6-5-4 mark against conference opponents. The Lions concluded the regular season in the top-half of the league, finishing seventh overall to earn a berth into the GLVC Championship Tournament for the first time. Lindenwood was a force on their home field throughout the season, posting a 5-1-3 record from Hunter Stadium. The Lions were unbeaten in St. Charles during their final eight home matches of the 2019 campaign, playing to a 5-0-3 mark in those contests. The team roster includes 16 players from Missouri/Illinois and 13 international players.

Maryville Saints

The Saints open the season at home against Quincy University on Friday February 26th with the Truman State Bulldogs visiting Sunday February 28th to begin the season. They will also host SBU, Drury, McKendree and Southern Indiana, closing with Illinois Springfield. The team added three players in the Fall, including Webster Groves legend Sheriden Smith who transfers in from D1 Northern Illinois. That is in addition to the nine players announced in June 2020 with Nathan Murillo (Holt) and Jose Soto (Howell) the local players included.

Men’s soccer earned its fourth consecutive bid into the 2019 Great Lakes Valley Conference Soccer Championships in 2019, earning the #3 seed. They finished the regular season with a 14-2-2 overall record and they finished league play with an 11-2-2 mark. The 14 victories are the most wins in a season since 1994 and the 11 conference wins are the second most since joining the GLVC. Despite falling to Bellarmine (now a D1 program) in the semifinals, the Saints received an NCAA bid . They went on beat Bellarmine in the Regional Final before falling to Indy in the NCAA Quarterfinals. The team finished 17-4-2 on the season. The 2020 roster included 15 players from Missouri and Illinois and 14 international players.

McKendree Bearcats

The Bearcats went 13-2-2 through the regular season with a 12-1-2 mark in GLVC action, which clinched their first-ever Regular Season title and the No. 1 seed in the Championship Tournament. Despite losing to Bellarmine in the Tournament Final, they received an NCAA bid and a first round bye. They will open their season at Indy before returning home Sunday February 28th to host Lewis. They will also host Truman State, Jewell, Drury, Missouri S&T and finish the regular season with home games against UMSL and Southern Indiana in April. There are 10 players from the bi-State area along with 21 international players. Only Karson Huels (Gibault) cracked the starting lineup with regularity, with 21 games as a freshman. He earned Freshman of the Year honors while at the GLVC Banquet as a result. Coach Scott Gyllenborg was named the GLVC Coach of the Year as well. McKendree Bearcats

The Men were named the fourth-seed in the NCAA Super Region 3, losing to fifth-seeded Ohio Valley in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Division II Tournament after receiving a first-round bye. The berth marked the first time in program history that the Bearcats reached the NCAA Tournament.

UMSL Tritons

The Tritons open their season with a pair of home games in late February, starting with Lewis on the 26th and Illinois-Springfield on the 28th. They will also host Jewell, Rockhurst, Missouri S&T, Maryville and Indy. The team finished 2019 with a 6-12 record, 4-11 in the GLVC with a roster that consistently featured 10 area players in the starting lineup which automatically makes them my favorite team. UMSL Tritons

The team added 11 players last Fall that includes a pair of NJCAA transfers, one each from ECC and Lewis & Clark. Dan King returns for his 20th year at the helm and this interview from July is a fun chat. King was the Big 10 MVP in 1983 for Indiana where he led the defense in winning the first two national championships for the Hoosiers (82 and 83) while finishing 2nd in 1981 and 1984.

Spring College Soccer Schedules