ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (5-1-1, 3-0-1 NSIC) is coming off a successful weekend where they received six points for their two conference wins against Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls. They are off to the best conference start in Concordia soccer's Division II history. The Golden Bears play three more conference contests this week as they hope to keep their five game unbeaten streak going.
 
First up, they travel to Mankato on Wednesday to take on the Minnesota State Mavericks, who are currently ranked 15^th in the nation. The Mavericks have come out on top in their past three meetings with the Golden Bears. In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Minnesota State won with scores of 3-0. In the 2016 matchup, the Bears gave up a goal early in the second half and were not able to tie it up, going on to lose 1-0.
 
The Mavericks are currently 4-0 in the conference with wins against Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud, Southwest Minnesota Stat, and Sioux Falls. The Bears have also beaten three of these teams, with a tie against Duluth. 25 players return for Minnesota State, including their top goal-scorer, junior Morgan Cottew. Cottew scored 15 times last season, which ranked third in the conference. This season she has two goals and an assist so far. Much like Concordia, Minnesota State has a deep offense, as they've had nine other players score as well this season.
 
After this road game, the Bears are back at Sea Foam Stadium for homecoming weekend where they will take on the Bemidji State Beavers on Friday night and the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
 
In their history, Bemidji and Concordia have been pretty even, with the Bears having an 8-10-2 all-time record against the Beavers. In the past three years it has been the Golden Bears who have been victorious, winning 1-0 three years in a row. Midfielder Jordan Rowan-Stafford scored the game-winner in the 2016 matchup 17 minutes in, with Mary Kaiser getting the assist.
 
Bemidji State is 7-0 currently, with conference wins against Minnesota Crookston, Upper Iowa, Winona State, University of Mary, and Minot State. CSP has yet to play any of these teams. The Beavers have a young squad this year as 19 out of 27 players are either freshman or sophomores. They graduated their top goal-scorer from the previous year, but have found a solid replacement in junior forward Rachael Norton, who has scored six times already this season.  Bemidji also returns experienced goalkeepers in Catherine Arneson and Anna Fobbe, who have each played in four games so far this year.

To close off their busy week, CSP takes on Minnesota Crookston. Concordia has an 11-6-2 series history against the Golden Eagles. In their 2016 matchup, the game ended in a 0-0 tie, with the Bears holding the shot advantage 17-12.
 
The Eagles are 0-7 so far this year and 0-5 in the conference. They return 13 players and bring in nine new faces. Freshman midfielder Jessica Withrow is their leading scorer, with two goals this year and sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Puttin is their most used goalie, making six starts and having a .623 save percentage.
 
The Bears are currently unbeaten in the conference and are coming off conference wins against Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls. They beat SMSU 2-1, with goals from juniors Jade Weller and Jordan Rowan-Stafford. Sophomore Leah Johnson had the game-winning goal against Sioux Falls, as the Bears won 1-0. Rowan-Stafford is currently leading the offense with seven points, but Concordia continues to have many offensive threats as eight different players have scored and three others have tallied assists.
 
The Wednesday contest against the Mavericks is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. During homecoming weekend, the Bears face Bemidji on Friday at 7 p.m. and Crookston on Sunday at 1 p.m. If you are unable to make it in person, follow along online at cspbears.com/watch.