ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (2-4, 1-2 NSIC) hits the road for the first time this season as they travel to Minnesota Crookston (1-4-1, 1-2 NSIC) on Friday and Bemidji State (5-1, 2-1 NSIC) on Sunday for a pair of NSIC matches.
The Golden Bears will look to stay hot after winning two out of their last three games heading into the weekend. This past week, CSP fought hard in a Thursday night matchup with Minnesota State but fell short in a 1-0 loss before claiming a convincing 3-0 win on Sunday against Sioux Falls.
Sunday's performance against USF was especially impressive as the Golden Bears dominated play with a 28-8 shot differential in their favor in their 3-0 win.
Taryn MacMillan got Concordia on the board in the 16th minute before
Alahna Anderson came in and scored a pair of goals in less than four minutes late in the first half.
With her two goals on Sunday, Anderson enters the weekend in eighth place at Concordia in the Division-II era with 13 career goals. The senior sits just three goals shy of passing Angie Rockney (15 goals) and pull even with Erin Johnson and Lindsay Hartleben for fifth place in program history.
Friday afternoon's match with Minnesota Crookston marks the 17th time the two schools have met on the soccer field as CSP has gone 11-5-1 in the previous meetings. The Golden Bears had their five-game winning streak against the Golden Eagles last season as the two teams played to a scoreless tie.
In last year's meeting, The Golden Bears put pressure on the Golden Eagles nearly all night but were unable to solve UMC keeper Lexie Gauger as she picked up her third shutout on the season. CU out-shot UMC 17-12 overall and 6-3 on shots on goal and maintained ball control on their attacking end for much of the game. Concordia keeper
Emma Gartner wasn't challenged often on the night but was up to the test as she made three saves and picked up her first shutout of the year.
On Sunday, Concordia-St. Paul will look to improve on their 6-10-2 mark in their 19
th meeting with Bemidji State. CSP has gone 2-1-1 in the last four meetings, including a 1-0 win in St. Paul last season.
Last year,
McKenzie Buck struck in the 82nd minute and
Emma Gartner picked up a shutout for the Golden Bears. The match appeared to be headed to a draw until Buck streaked down the left side of the field past a few BSU defenders and buried a hard, low shot into the bottom left corner of the net past the keeper to put CSP on top in the 1-0 win. Gartner finished with five saves in the win.
Follow the action live this weekend at the links above.
