The final week of the 2009 regular season is here for the Truman women’s soccer team, and the Bulldogs find themselves chasing both their 9th MIAA title as well as a bid to the NCAA tournament with two matches to play.

The Bulldogs (13-3-2, 12-2 MIAA) host Missouri Western (8-9-1, 6-7-1 MIAA) on Tuesday afternoon before traveling to Emporia (Kan.) State (1-15-1, 1-13 MIAA) to wrap up the regular season on Thursday afternoon.

Truman is one point back in the race for the MIAA crown, as Saturday night’s loss at Central Missouri allowed an idle Nebraska-Omaha squad to slip past the Bulldogs into first-place. The Mavs travel to Southwest Baptist on Thursday before also making the trip to Warrensburg to face UCM on Saturday. If the Bulldogs overtake UNO this week, the purple and white would secure the program’s ninth MIAA title in the 11 years that it has been recognized as a conference sport.

More importantly, however, is Truman’s spot in the South Central region, as the top-six teams from a combined pool of the MIAA, Lone Star and Heartland conferences receive NCAA tournament berths. The Bulldogs entered play last week ranked third in the region with a new poll being released on Wednesday prior to the full tournament bracket’s release on Monday, Nov. 9.

The top two seeds in the region will earn the right to host first and second round play, as seeds 4 & 5 will join the top seed in one sub-regional while the 3 & 6 seeds will meet up with the second seed in the other sub-regional.

Following the Team:

Bulldog box scores and match recaps will be available immediately following each match on Truman’s Web site: gobulldogs.truman.edu.

Live Stats for the Missouri Western match are available at: http:gobulldogs.truman.edu/livestats.asp

Live Stats for the ESU match are not available.

Bulldog Coaching Staff:

Mike Cannon is in his 17th season as the program’s head coach, having compiled a 229-79-29 (.722) overall record at Truman. He has guided the purple and white to eight (of ten) MIAA championships and has reached the NCAA tournament seven times.

He is assisted by Martin Clayes, who is in his second season at Truman as a member of the coaching staff following a four-year stint as a player on the men’s soccer team.

Scouting the Opposition:

Missouri Western “Griffons” (8-9-1, 6-7-1 MIAA)

- Top Offense: Abby Widrig (7g, 4a); Jessica Martin (7g, 4a)

- Top Goalkeeper: Jenna Weis (11 starts, 1.31 GAA, 52 saves)

- Head Coach: Jeff Hansen (15-54-7, 4th season at MWSU)

- Last Time vs. MWSU (Oct. 1, 2009) – Freshman forward Olivia Hayes gave the Truman women’s soccer team three big points in the MIAA standings, as her free kick goal with just 25 seconds remaining in the second overtime period gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 road win at Missouri Western State University.

The two squads seemed destined for a draw before a foul just outside the box by the host Griffons set Hayes up to be the hero. Hayes delivered, notching her MIAA-leading eighth goal of the season and ending the contest in dramatic fashion.

The Bulldogs recorded their fifth straight shutout behind sophomore goalkeeper Jayne Grisham’s six saves.

It was the fourth overtime – and third double-overtime – match of the year for Truman, who improved to 1-1-2 when faced with extra time.

Emporia State “Hornets” (1-15-1, 1-13 MIAA)

- Top Offense: Ashley Hill (4g); Sarah Anderson (2g, 2a)

- Top Goalkeeper: Katrina Goscha (6 starts, 2.66 GAA, 28 saves)

- Head Coach: Jim Schneiderhahn (8-64-3, 4th season at ESU)

- Last Time vs. ESU (Sept. 19, 2009) - The Truman women’s soccer team scored a season-best three goals – more than enough for a defense that allowed just one total shot – to move to 3-1 in MIAA play with a 3-0 win against Emporia State on Family Day Saturday at the Truman Soccer Pitch.

The Bulldogs out-shot the Hornets, 29-1, for the match – including an 11-0 advantage on goal – to cruise to the victory. Freshman Olivia Hayes notched her team-leading fourth goal of the season in the 41st minute by scoring in the lower left corner of the net off a feed from sophomore Jaclyn Schumann to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 halftime lead.

Truman continued the offensive onslaught throughout the second 45 as well, eventually leading to goals for freshman Kelsey Twellman (60’) and junior Beth Bystrom (90’) to reach the 3-0 final. Truman took 10 corner kicks in the match – scoring directly off of one when Twellman played a short corner to senior Theresa Bauler, who gave it right back to the freshman midfielder to

blast into the right side of the net.

Both sophomore Jayne Grisham and freshman Alison Taylor each spent time in goal for Truman, while Nikki Schmitz posted eight saves for the visiting Hornets.

Series Info:

Truman vs. Missouri Western (Truman leads all-time series, 9-0-0).

Truman vs. Emporia State (Truman leads all-time series, 16-0-1).

Quick Kicks:

- Freshman Olivia Hayes continues to make her case for MIAA freshman of the year, as she ranks second in the conference in goals scored (11), points per game (1.38), and game-winning tallies (5).

- If senior Kristin Haluszczak plays in each of the final two regular season contests this week, she will tie a quartet of former ‘Dogs for the top spot in program history with 85 games played. Fellow senior Isabel Gaeta has also moved into the top-10 games played list with 81.

- The Bulldogs have displayed balanced scoring all season, as ten different players have led the team in goals in individual matches.

- Through the week of Oct. 25, the Bulldog defense has posted the 6th-best shutout percentage in the NCAA, at a 68.8% shutout clip.

Courtesy Truman State University