Mizzou Soccer Opens Season Against Southern Miss, Ohio State

Mizzou Storylines

Mizzou Soccer officially opens the 2019 season, hosting Southern Miss (Aug. 22) and hitting the road to face Ohio State (Aug. 25).
This will be the first meeting between Mizzou and their southern foe. The series between the Tigers and Ohio State is locked at 2-2, with the winner on Sunday's match taking the all-time lead.
Back for Mizzou this season is all but two players who made double-digit starts in 2018.
All-SEC first teamer Sarah Luebbert is back alongside Julissa Cisneros, who was named to the conference's All-Freshman team a season ago. Back-liners Anna Frick and Peyton Joseph return, as do midfielders Madison Lewis and Zoe Cross.
The Tigers were picked to finish 10th in the Southeastern Conference in a preseason voting by the league's 14 head coaches.
Three Tigers, seniors Peyton Joseph, Anna Frick and Sarah Luebbert, earned spots on the 2019 SEC Watch List.

Scouting Southern Miss

Southern Miss finished as the C-USA runner-ups a season ago, falling to North Texas in the championship game after compiling a record of 13-6-1 — catching fire in the conference tournament.
Junior forward Miah Zuazua led the Golden Eagles with 26 points in 2018, scoring 10 goals and adding six assists.
Southern Miss also returns their primary goalkeeper, Kendell Mindnich, who registered 66 saves on the season.
The Golden Eagles averaged 1.90 goals per game last season, getting an average of 12.7 shots off each game.

Scouting Ohio State

The Buckeyes went 9-6-4 in 2018, and will open their 2019 season on Thursday, at home against Louisville.
Ohio State was predicted to finish fourth in the Big Ten in the preseason coaches' poll, and garnered a point in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll.
Back for the Buckeyes are their top four point scorers from a year ago, led by junior Izzy Rodriguez. The junior tallied 10 points off four goals and a pair of assists in 2018.
As a team, Ohio State averaged 1.16 goals per game, recording a shot-on-goal percentage of .477.

Defending Walton Stadium

Despite opening the season with a split weekend, Mizzou will have plenty of chances to take advanatge of the friendly confines of Audrey J. Walton Stadium in 2019.
Outside of the team's road trip to Ohio State this weekend, the Tigers will play 12 of their 18 games at Walton Stadium, including six-straight home games from Aug. 29-Sept. 15.
Since joining the SEC, beginning with the 2012 season, Mizzou has gone a combined 44-17-7 at home — a combined winning percentage of .699 over the last seven seasons.

Schedule