ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's soccer team will kick off its season this weekend with a pair of non-conference contests away from home, including one against a team ranked among the top five teams in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches pre-season poll.

The Miners will begin their 2021 campaign Friday when they face Saint Martin's in a 1 p.m. contest at the Lou Fusz Soccer Complex in St. Louis, then they return to the St. Louis metropolitan area Sunday to take on fourth-ranked McKendree at noon.

Missouri S&T is coming off a spring season in which it finished with a record of 3-9-2, but four of the five players who scored goals for the Miners during that season return to the roster for this fall.  Paige Jackson (St. Louis, MO/Incarnate Word Academy) led the Miners with four goals and an assist last season, including two game-winning goals, while Sydney Gratz (Geneva, IL/Geneva) and Beth Roberts (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) scored three times apiece.  The fourth returning goal scorer was Kaitlyn Schwandtner (Tebbetts, MO/Jefferson City), whose goal came in the victory at Southwest Baptist.

Goalkeepers Kristin Steins (Ballwin, MO/Parkway South) and Viktoria Johnson (Granite City, IL/Granite City) split time in goal last season, with Steins – a fifth-year senior – recording a 1.62 goals against average and making 31 saves in 721 minutes and Johnson finishing her 563 minutes of action with a  1.92 goals against average and a team-high 34 saves.

ABOUT SAINT MARTIN'S: The Saints will be looking to bounce back from a 1-10 campaign played in the spring as they were outscored 29-10 in those 11 contests.  The Lacey, Wash.,-based team got 50 percent of its goals last season from midfielder Kiersten Madsen, including the only goal in the victory posted by the Saints a year ago over Western Oregon.

Saint Martin's also returns two other goal scorers from last spring in Rachel Kimura and Taylor Goodpaster, as well as goalkeeper Ali Campigotto, who played every minute in the nets last season and had a 2.61 goals against average with 63 saves.  The save total ranked among the top 20 in NCAA Division II last year.

ABOUT McKENDREE: The Bearcats were picked to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference this season – Sunday's game is a non-conference matchup – after capturing its second GLVC championship in four seasons last spring.  The Bearcats enter this season ranked fourth in the United Soccer Coaches pre-season poll and return five All-GLVC players from a team that went 14-2-1 in the spring campaign.

Among those returners for the Bearcats are forward Anna Stiffler and midfielder Emma Knobel, who had 19 points apiece during the season.  Stiffler scored eight goals and was later named as the GLVC's Freshman of the Year, while Knobel tallied seven goals and added five assists.  Second-team All-GLVC goalkeeper Mercedes King finished the season with an 0.48 goals against average.

McKendree beat the Miners 2-1 in their only matchup in March with Knobel scoring the game-winning goal in the 44^th minute.  Gratz hit the back of the net for the S&T tally in that game.