Missouri Soccer Finishes Regular Season This Weekend
10/27/1999 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Oct. 27, 1999
Columbia, Mo. -
MISSOURI ENDS REGULAR SEASON WITH NON-CONFERENCE MATCHES
The No. 21-ranked Missouri Tigers finish their regular season schedule this weekend with a match at Purdue before the 11-5-1 Tigers host Tulsa at Walton Stadium. MU ended Big 12 play Sunday by tying Texas, 0-0 in double-overtime, finishing the season at 6-3-1 in conference. Friday?s meeting with the Boilermakers will be the first between Missouri and Purdue. With a victory, the Tigers would be 4-0 versus Big Ten Conference foes in 1999. Sunday?s match, Senior Day at Walton Stadium, will break a 1-1 all-time deadlock between Tulsa and Missouri. The Tigers took last year?s match, 1-0. Tulsa won in 1997, 3-0.
PURDUE AT A GLANCE
The Boilermakers have struggled this with a 7-10 overall mark while going 2-8 in Big Ten Conference action. Purdue enters weekend competition having lost 9 of its last 10 matches. Kate Queen leads Purdue in scoring with five goals and two assists totaling 12 points. Tara St. John and Rebecca Broering have each chipped in four goals as well. Jocelyn Cavalier has recorded three shutouts in net, while making 63 saves. Purdue and Missouri share three common opponents, all in the Big Ten Conference. Purdue posted a 1-2 record versus Illinois (1-0), Michigan (1-4) and Indiana (0-1 OT). The Tigers are a perfect 3-0 versus the three schools this season.
TULSA AT A GLANCE
Fielding a team with 15 freshmen and sophomores filling 21 roster spots, Tulsa Head Coach Damon Gore is experiencing his first losing season in his first season at the school. Tulsa, losers of 8 of its last 11, stands at 7-9 overall, 1-5 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The team boasts four players with double-digit point toals, led by freshman forward/midfielder Julie Twellman who has eight goals and five assists for 21 points. Sunday will be a homecoming for Twellman, a 1998 gradute of Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. Tulsa is allowing 3.0 goals per match on average while scoring 2.0 per match. Freshman golakeeper Amanda Wallace has played the majority of time in net for Tulsa, registering a 2.54 goals against average while making 71 saves (.645).
MISSOURI IS #3 SEED AT BIG 12 TOURNAMENT
At 6-3-1, Missouri has clinched the No. 3-seed at the 1999 Big 12 Conference Tounrament. The tourney runs Nov. 3-6 at the Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio, Texas. MU?s spot was cemented when Baylor and Colorado tied on Sunday in Boulder, giving Baylor a 5-3-1 mark with one match to play with Texas Tech. A Baylor win over Tech would tie the Bears with MU, but Missouri would take the higher seed by virtue of its 3-1 win over Baylor Oct. 3. The Tigers? opponent, the No. 6 seed, has yet to be determined, but could be Colorado, Texas or Texas Tech, depending next weekend?s results. The match will begin at 6:30pm, Wednesday, November 3. The match?s winner would face the winner of the No.2-No.7 match with the second round match beginning at 7:30pm on Thursday. This will be Missouri?s second consecutive trip to the confernece tournament and third in the program?s four-year history.
SENIORS PLAY FINAL MATCH AT WALTON STADIUM
Eight senior soccer players will play their final regular season match at Walton Stadium when Missouri hosts Tulsa at 1pm. Five members of the senior class--Heather Buchheit, Kate Dwyer, Jennifer Kram, Liz LaTour and Liz Passanise--are completeing their fourth year in the program as founders of Missouri Soccer. Fellow seniors Jackie Adamec, Erin Grimsley, and Mandy Pavlovits will finish their collegiate careers as Tigers after beginning college at other institutions. This group has been the core of a Missouri squad which has set a new season-high for conference wins, tied the season-high 11 overall wins and has its sights set on the program?s first NCAA Tournament bid.
MU AFTER 12TH WIN
Missouri is just one win away from setting a new season-high for overall wins in a season. The Tigers have totaled 11 victories to this point, tying last season?s season total when MU finished 11-9-1. A win on Friday would also break a three-match winless streak for Missouri. Since its Oct. 15 victory over Iowa State, the Tigers have dropped matches to Nebraska (5-1), Texas A&M (5-2) and tied Texas (0-0). It is the longest Missouri has gone without a win since a four-match drought last season between Nov. 18 and Nov. 30.
TIGER OFFENSIVE ATTACK WAITING TO EXPLODE
In this weekend?s matches, Missouri will be looking to recapture the offensive prowess that had become the signature of this MU team. Like an automobile whose gas tank runs dry, the Missouri offense has sputtered of late. Over the past three matches, the Tigers have managed only three goals, including a double-overtime 0-0 tie last Sundaywith Texas, the first time Missouri had been shutout in 1999. In the scoreless tie with Texas, MU attempted 33 shots, including 16 shots on goal, proof that the offense is creating opportunities. As the last weekend of regular season play approaches, these Tigers will need to sharpen their finishing skills as they face two non-conference opponents before taking part in the Big 12 Conference tourney.
BLITZ FACING A FAMILAR FOE
Sunday?s regular-season ending match with Tulsa will represent the past and present of Missouri Head Coach Bryan Blitz?s coaching and playing careers. Blitz, a 1987 gradute of Tulsa, played at the school from 1983-87 and then served as an assistant coach in the first year of the women?s program at Tulsa during the 1987 season.
TALK ABOUT STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
Head Coach Bryan Blitz indentified this season, his fourth at Missouri, as the campaign where he wanted his team to make its statement to collegiate soccer. To do that, Blitz scheduled several tough non-conference matches to compliment the very diificult Big 12 schedule MU would face. How difficult has Missouri?s competition been in 1999? With 17 matches completed, a check of the season?s rankings reveals nine Missouri opponents that have either spent time in the top-25 or has received votes in the national poll. MU holds a 5-4 mark versus those teams, gaining wins over Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Baylor, and Iowa State. Losses have come to Duke, San Diego, Nebraska and Texas A&M.
HEAD COACH BRYAN BLITZ
In his fourth season as Missouri?s head women?s soccer coach is Bryan Blitz. The architect of Missouri?s climb from birth to a national ranking in less than four seasons, Blitz is 35-40-2 at Missouri and 80-84-10 in his ninth season overall. Before arriving at MU, Blitz brought the women?s soccer program at Butler University into existence, taking them to a Midwestern Collegiate Conference championship with an undeafted conference run in 1995. For his efforts, Blitz was named the MCC?s Coach of the Year. A native of Ellenville, New York, Blitz earned his master?s degree in business from Butler University in 1991 and a bachelor?s degree from Tulsa Universty in 1987. At Tulsa he helped start the women?s program there as an assistant coach in 1987.
INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS
Chemistry is not alot of fun to study, as this SID will tell you, but any coach will tell you that it is a basic component of any great team. The Missouri Tigers started their 1999 chemistry project in early August when they traveled to Holland for three matches of international competition. MU swept their three-game schedule, with wins over the Belgium Devils (3-0), Team Holland (4-0) and Club Belgium (4-3). Six different Tigers scored for the Missouri attack, a testiment to the depth of Missouri?s offensive threat. Missouri?s defense was also in top form, shuyting out its first two opponents and allowing just three goals to Club Belgium, the best team in the country of Belgium. ?The way this team came together over that week and the chemistry that developed while we were there , exceeded my expectations for the trip,? Head Coach Bryan Blitz said.
ELLIS LIBRARY COPY CENTER ANNOUNCES SOCCER DONATION
The University of Missouri Department of Athletics is proud to announce Ellis Copy Center as the title sponsor for this season?s Missouri soccer invitational. ?We are very pleased to have Ellis Copy Center support soccer at Mizzou,? Head Coach Bryan Blitz said. ?We feel we have a great invitational set up this season with all four teams and Ellis Copy Center?s support only helps the invitational and the program not only now, but for years to come.? The company?s sponsorship of the invitational will be managed by Mizzou Sports Properties, responsible for securing corporate sponsorhips and promoting MU?s 20 men?s and women?s intercollegiate athletic programs.
