ROLLA, Mo. – After dispatching the team that ended its 2015 season, Missouri S&T's men's soccer now sets its sights on the squad that eliminated it from the 2016 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament as it plays Indianapolis Friday night in the semifinal round of the 2017 event.
The Miners, 8-6-3 on the season, and Greyhounds will face off in Indianapolis at Carroll Stadium on the campus of IUPUI at 8:30 p.m. (Eastern time) Friday evening in the second of the two semifinal matchups. The winner will face the survivor of the game between Lewis and Southern Indiana Sunday at 3 p.m. (Eastern time).
S&T earned its spot in the semifinals after posting its first-ever win over Rockhurst in Kansas City, getting a goal from
David Murphy (Naperville, IL/Naperville Central) in the ninth minute of overtime for a 3-2 victory. Murphy is second on the team in scoring with seven goals and five assists for 19 points; he had a hand in all three S&T goals in Sunday's win as he assisted on the first two.
Felipe Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/), who scored the first Miner goal and assisted on the game-winner, leads the team with nine goals and four assists for 22 points. Andrade moved into third place on the S&T career lists for goals and assists last week, as he has now tallied 28 goals and accumulated 70 points in his time as a Miner.
Unnar Ulfarsson (Gardabaer, Iceland/Fjolnir Reykjavik) ranks second in the GLVC with his team-high seven assists on the season, while goalkeeper
Aaron Hohenstein (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran South) has a league-high 116 saves and has a 1.60 goals against average.
Missouri S&T is in the semifinals for the third time overall and second time in three years, but is seeking its first berth in the championship game.
ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS: The fourth-seeded Greyhounds, who knocked S&T out of the tournament in the opening round a year ago before losing in penalty kicks to Rockhurst in the championship game, eliminated Bellarmine with a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals on Sunday. UIndy will bring an 11-5-1 record into Friday's contest.
The Greyhounds had lost their last two regular season contests prior to the tournament – to the two teams that held the top two seeds – but rebounded Sunday behind two goals from James Jenkins, who has scored eight times this season. Javier Steinwascher leads UIndy with nine goals and 22 points , while Benjamin Sierra has three goals and five assists.
UIndy ranks second in the GLVC with 33 goals on the year, with Steinwascher tied with Andrade for fourth in the league with their nine goals.
Goalkeeper Miles Palmer has a 1.22 goals against average and has made 45 saves in 1,474 minutes of play.
UIndy beat the Miners 3-1 in Rolla when the teams met on Sept. 15, scoring twice in a span of 10 seconds in the first half. Ulfarsson scored the lone goal for the Miners when he connected on a direct free kick.
