ROLLA, Mo. – With just three games remaining on its regular season schedule, Missouri S&T's soccer team heads into a critical weekend road trip looking to solidify a spot among the top eight in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in its efforts to make the conference tournament field.

The Miners will face McKendree Friday in a 7:30 p.m. match in Lebanon, Ill., then head over to Evansville, Ind., where they will play Sunday against Southern Indiana at 2:30 p.m.  S&T, who currently sits in the eighth spot in the GLVC standings, holds a one-half game advantage over USI heading into this weekend's contests.

Missouri S&T, 6-5-2 overall and 5-5-1 in GLVC play, is one game in back of Bellarmine and Drury in the league standings and is tied in the winning percentage column with Missouri-St. Louis, but S&T has a game at hand on the Tritons.  Southern Indiana is at 5-6 in conference play and Quincy, whom the Miners beat earlier this season, is at 4-7.

Last week, the Miners dropped a 2-1 decision to Maryville before playing to a 2-2 tie with UMSL on Sunday, tying the game on Felipe Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/)'s penalty kick goal with under a minute to play in regulation time.

Andrade is second on the team with four goals on the season to David Murphy (Naperville, IL/Naperville Central), who tallied a goal in both games last week and has six on the year.  Murphy also leads the Miners with 14 points, while Unnar Ulfarsson (Gardabaer, Iceland/Fjolnir Reykjavik) has 11 – including a league-high seven assists – and Andrade has 10 points.
 
Aaron Hohenstein (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran South) leads the GLVC and is ranked second in NCAA Division II in saves with 92 on the year and brings a 1.38 goals against average and three shutouts into Friday's match.

Following this weekend's road trip, the Miners will close their regular season schedule at home Oct. 25 when they host Wisconsin-Parkside.

ABOUT McKENDREE: The Bearcats enter Friday's contest looking to snap a 10-game losing streak – McKendree is 2-11 overall and 0-11 in conference play – but have been a tough foe for the Miners in recent years as S&T has scored a late goal to beat them in each of the last three meetings.

Gonzalo Correa leads the Bearcats with three goals on the season, but McKendree has scored just seven times in its 13 games this year.  Two of those goals came Sunday in the final seven minutes of play in a 3-2 loss at Drury, but the Bearcats have been blanked nine times this season and have had six losses by one goal.

Ian Bender and Brett Niedzwiecki have split the goalkeeping duties, with Bender holding a 1.52 goals against average and making 43 saves in 770 minutes of action.


ABOUT SOUTHERN INDIANA:  The Screaming Eagles dropped a tough 1-0 decision Sunday to fourth-ranked Rockhurst, snapping a four-game winning streak and moving USI outside the top eight in the GLVC standings in the process.  Rockhurst scored the only goal of the game in the 68^th minute to drop USI to 5-6 in league play and 7-6 overall.

Eric Ramirez, last year's GLVC freshman of the year, is tied with Sean Rickey for the team lead in goals with five apiece, while Justin Raines has scored four times.   The trio has combined for 14 of the team's 20 goals this year and among them have scored all seven of USI's decisive goals in its wins.

Goalkeeper Adam Zehme has a 1.27 goals against average in the nets and has recorded 53 saves and two shutouts.

The Miners and Screaming Eagles played to a 2-2 tie in Rolla last October.