ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's soccer team will get its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule underway on Sunday when it heads to Springfield, Ill., to take on a University of Illinois Springfield team that was picked among the top teams in the conference this season.

Both teams will come into the game with a record of 1-2, but the Miners have dropped two straight while the Prairie Stars are fresh off their first win of the season as they defeated Wisconsin-Parkside last Wednesday.  Sunday's match will get underway at 2:30 p.m.

After winning their opener over Northeastern State, the Miners suffered a hard-luck loss to Rogers State on a goal in the 90^th minute of play and then were shut out Saturday by Eastern New Mexico at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.  The Miners were outshot by a 15-8 margin in a game where the Greyhounds did all of their scoring in the second half.

The Miners have scored three goals in their three contests thus far, which have come from Shane Cairns (North Olmstead, OH/North Olmstead), Pablo Gomez (Madrid, Spain/IES Neil Armstrong) and Sigurd Semlitsch (Oslo, Norway/Stabekk Videregaaende Skole).  Davis Joseph (Andover, KS/Andover Central) has started all three games in goal and has a 1.88 goals against average in 239 minutes of action with 16 saves.

ABOUT THE OPPONENT: After dropping games to Davenport and Saginaw Valley State by a combined score of 8-3 to begin the year, Illinois Springfield – who was ranked 16^th nationally in the pre-season – got its first win last week with a 2-1 victory over a Parkside team that is currently ranked 24^th in the latest United Soccer Coaches rankings.

The Prairie Stars have received goals from five different players this season, including one from Federico D'Andrea that turned out to be the game-winner in the 83^rd minute against Parkside.  Max Tweddle has an assist to go along with his goal for a team-high three points.

Alberto Valsecchi has played all three games in the nets for UIS and owns a goals against average of 3.00 with four saves.