Women's Soccer | 10/10/2014 9:09:00 PM

THIS WEEK: After a week away, the University of Mary women's soccer team returns home for a pair of Northern Sun matches. The Marauders open the weekend against the Concordia University, St. Paul Golden Bears on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 12:30 p.m. U-Mary then faces its biggest challenge of the season when the Marauders host 2nd ranked Minnesota State University, Mankato Mavericks on Sunday, Oct. 12. Kickoff is 1 p.m. Both games are at the MDU Resources Community Bowl.

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS DAY: The University of Mary women's soccer team is holding its Breast Cancer Awareness Game on Saturday, Oct. 11. The Marauders will wear pink and black jerseys and pink socks. Junior defender Jacquelyn Smith created a "Kickin' Cancer 2014" video with her teammates that will also be shown during the contest.

THE RECORDS: The Marauders are 2-5-3 overall this season and 1-4-2 for five points in Northern Sun play... The Golden Bears are 4-5-1 overall and 3-3-1 with 10 points for 8th place in the NSIC... The Mavericks are 10-0 overal and 7-0 for 21 points and 1st place in the NSIC.

LAST WEEK: Taking their first road trip of the season, the Marauders dropped a 4-1 decision at Upper Iowa before falling just short in a 3-2 loss at Winona State.

OPPOSITION PARTY: Concordia University, St. Paul finds itself in the middle of the pack at the halfway point of the Northern Sun season. Struggling offensively to start the season, the Golden Bears were shut out in six of their first eight games. In their last two matches, however, CSP has scored 10 goals, defeating MSU Moorhead 3-2 and Presentation College 7-0. Taryn MacMillan leads the team in scoring with four goals. She is 2-for-2 on penalty kicks and has two game-winning goals. Emma Gartner has seen the most time in goal and has a 1.52 goals against average with a .731 save percentage. She also has two shutouts... Minnesota State is off to its best start in school history, starting a perfect 10-0. The Mavericks have eight shutout wins and have allowed just two goals all season. Sophomore Kiana Nickel and senior Emily Morris are tied for the NSIC lead in assists with seven apiece and junior Korey Kronforst is tied for the league lead with nine goals.

STREAK: The Marauders are 11-0-1 all-time against Concordia-St. Paul.

STREAK II: Just as the Golden Bears are seeking their first win over the Marauders, U-Mary is also in search of its first win over Minnesota State. The Marauders are 0-5-2 against the Mavericks. The ties came in back to back games, a 0-0 draw in the 2009 NSIC tournament (MSU would advance in a shootout) and a 1-1 tie in Bismarck, N.D., in 2010.

LAST LOOK FOR A WHILE: This weekend is the last time the Marauders will play in front of its home crowd for a while. After hosting CSP and MSU, the Marauders embark on a 5-game road trip before closing the regular season out at home on Nov. 2 against Northern State.

RANKED: The match against #2 Minnesota State will be the second time U-Mary has faced a nationally-ranked opponent. U-Mary tied then-21st Central Missouri 2-2 in the second game of the season. U-Mary also faced Winona State University last weekend and fell 3-2 when the Warriors were receiving votes. WSU is #22 this week.  

FIRST STRIKE: In five of their last eight games the Marauders have scored first. The first four game-opening goals came from Michelle McGeary. Elizabeth Patterson ended the streak when she started the scoring at Winona State. It was Patterson's first career goal.

FIRSTS: Two Marauders scored their first career goals over the weekend. Freshman midfielder Elizabeth Patterson and sophomore forward Sabra Bertsch both tallied against Winona State on Sunday for their initial collegiate counters.

CHIPPING IN: Through ten games this season, nine different Marauders have tallied goals. Three more have assists. Last year only six players had goals and 11 had either a goal or an assist.

LEADERS: Three Marauders are showing up in the NSIC leaderboards. With five goals and one assist for 11 points, Michelle McGeary is 9th in points and 7th in goals. Loren Sellers is 5th in assists with four. Shelby Buttron is 5th in saves/game (5.62).