Match 10: Western Illinois (1-9, 0-0 Summit League) at North Dakota State (4-5, 0-0 Summit League)
Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 | 7 p.m.
Dacotah Field | Fargo, N.D.
Live Stats | Live Video

Match 11: IUPUI at North Dakota State
Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014 | Noon
Dacotah Field | Fargo, N.D.
Live Stats | Live Video

Social Media: @NDSUsoccer | @NDSUathletics | #SummitWSOC

Complete Weekly Match Notes (PDF)

This Week in NDSU Soccer:
 
NDSU Opens Summit League Play at Home Against Western Illinois, IUPUI
     After being idle last week, the North Dakota State women's soccer team will look to snap a five-match losing skid when its opens Summit League play at home at Dacotah Field Friday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 5. The Bison will face the Western Illinois Leathernecks on Friday at 7 p.m. before battling the IUPUI Jaguars Sunday at noon.
 
The Series against Western Illinois
Friday's league opener against Western Illinois will be the 11th meeting in the all-time series ... The Bison lead the series, 5-4-1 ... Last season NDSU fell to the Leathernecks in Macomb, Ill., 1-0, despite a career-high 15 saves from goalkeeper Sierra Bonham ... NDSU's last win in the series was a 2-1 victory at home during the 2012 campaign.
 
The Series against IUPUI
Sunday's tilt against the Jaguars will mark the 11th meeting in the all-time series ... NDSU leads the series, 6-4-0, and has won the past three matches with IUPUI, including a 1-0 victory last season in Indianapolis ... The last NDSU loss in the series was back in 2009 when the Bison fell at IUPUI, 3-1.
 
About Western Illinois
The Western Illinois Leathernecks enter the week with an overall record of 1-9-0. WIU has lost eight straight matches dating back to its lone win of the season, a 2-0 triumph over Northern Illinois on Aug. 24.
WIU is 1-4-0 at home and 0-5-0 on the road this season ... Sarah Wright, Nicole Beer, Sarah Hall and Skyler Jessop have each netted one goal for WIU, while Lindsey Kuitse, Amy Bennett and Mary Anderson have each contributed an assist ... Goalkeeper Victoria Kappel has made nine starts for WIU and has a 1-8-0 record between the pipes. She has allowed 24 goals and made 51 saves for a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.72. Kappel has one shutout in 793:51 minutes in goal ... As a team, the Leathernecks have only scored four goals  this season compared to 26 from their adversaries. WIU averages just 0.40 goals per game compared to 2.60 from its opponents.
 
About IUPUI
The IUPUI Jaguars enter the week with an overall record of 2-6-3 after playing Indiana State to a 3-3 draw in double overtime on Sept. 21 in Indianapolis. The Jags will face South Dakota State on Friday, Oct. 3, before traveling to Fargo for Sunday's league match ... The Jaguars are 1-2-2 at home and 1-4-1 on the road this season ... Tori Munich leads the Jags on offense with five goals for 10 total points on 18 shot attempts, while Krissy Kirkhoff has four goals and nine points on a team-high 47 shots. Meghan Day and Kalli Shepler-Tucker each have a team-best three assists through 11 matches ... Goalkeepers Nicole Kulovitz and Catherine Schmidt have split time between the pipes this season for IUPUI. Kulovitz has played in eight matches with seven starts, allowing nine goals with 40 saves for a GAA of 1.59. She has a 1-4-0 record in 509:21 minutes in goal. Schmidt has seen action in eight matches with four starts. She has surrendered 10 goals while making 33 saves for a GAA of 1.66. Schmidt is 1-2-3 and has played 540:39 minutes between the pipes ... As a team, IUPUI averages 1.00 goals per game while allowing 1.73 per game from its opponents.
 
Catching Up with the Bison
The Bison enter the week at 4-5-0 after dropping their fifth straight match at Drake on Sept. 21, 3-0. NDSU has not claimed victory since a 2-1 triumph on Aug. 31 at Northern Colorado ... In the five-match losing skid, NDSU has given up seven goals while being held scoreless by its adversaries ... The Bison are led offensively by Lauren Miller, who has seven goals for 14 total points. Lizzie Lukas has three goals for six points while Sam Verbeke and Tiana Khamvongsa each have one goal ... Amy Yang leads the Bison in assists with four while Anisha Kinnarath has two and Khamvongsa and Mikayla Jacobson have one ... NDSU goalkeeper Sierra Bonham has made all nine starts in goal for NDSU and has compiled a record of 4-5 with one shutout. She has given up nine goals while making 37 saves in 778:02 minutes for a GAA average of 1.04. Bonham leads The Summit League in GAA ... As a team, the Bison average 1.44 goals per game while holding their opponents to 1.00 per game. NDSU is being outshot by its opponents, on average, 11.3 to 12.7 and has taken 30 corner kicks compared to 35 from its opponents ... Defensively, the Bison lead The Summit League in GAA with an average of 0.98 and goals allowed with nine.
 
NDSU Tabbed Third in Summit League Preseason Poll
     The North Dakota State University women's soccer team was picked to finish third in The Summit League's preseason poll. Reigning league champion Denver was selected as the preseason favorite in a vote of the league's nine head coaches. South Dakota State was second followed by the Bison at third. Oral Roberts was fourth followed by Western Illinois at fifth and Fort Wayne at sixth. IUPUI, Omaha and South Dakota rounded out the poll at seventh, eighth and ninth.

 Head Coach Mark Cook
     Mark Cook is entering his third season at the helm of the North Dakota State soccer program after being named head coach on Jan. 25, 2012.  He is the fourth head coach in the 17-year history of the program.
     Last season, Cook led NDSU to an overall record of 9-10 and a third place finish in The Summit League with a record of 4-3. The Bison advanced to The Summit League tournament championship match with a 2-1 upset win over South Dakota State before falling to Denver to finish runner-up in the event. It was NDSU's fifth straight appearance in the league tournament. 
     Cook came to NDSU after serving as the Director of Coaching at the Minnesota Thunder Academy for 11 years, where he grew a four-team program into one of the premier club programs in the Twin Cities with 65 teams in 2012. 
     He graduated from Alfred (N.Y.) University in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in communications. He was the starting goalkeeper at Alfred for two years.

The Opposing Coaches
Ted Flogaites - Western Illinois 
     Following five successful seasons at Hastings College, 11-year coaching veteran Ted Flogaites (pronounced Flow-guy-tes) took over at Western Illinois as head coach of the women's soccer program in July 2012. 
     Flogaites took over as the Leathernecks' fifth head coach in program history. He brought to Western a career record of 123-85-13 in 11 years as a head coach, including a five-year mark of 76-22-9 with the Broncos. 
     He began his collegiate playing career at Adelphi University before finishing at UC Santa Barbara where he earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy in May 1999. He earned his master's degree in health science from New Jersey City in May 2002 and is currently finishing his doctoral degree requirements in sports management from the United States Sports Academy.

Chris Johnson - IUPUI
     Chris Johnson enters his 11th season at the helm of the IUPUI women's soccer program in 2013 and his 20th year as a collegiate head coach. Johnson ranks as the program's all-time wins (67) leader. 
     Prior to coming to IUPUI, Johnson spent nine years building the women's soccer program at the University of Indianapolis.
     Collegiately, Johnson was a four-year letterwinner at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. While there, he helped the team to its first-ever winning season, first national ranking and first trip to the conference finals. He served as team captain as a senior.
     He graduated from SJC with a degree in accounting in May 1991.

Up Next
     NDSU will travel to Omaha and South Dakota for a pair of Summit League matches. The Bison will be at Omaha on Friday, Oct. 10, before trekking to South Dakota on Sunday, Oct. 12.