courtside

RPI after Thursday’s games: BYU 1 (Only loss is to Utah State) Brown 5 (Perfect record in the Ivy) SLU 14 (Shut out once all season) Xavier 20 (5th nationally in G.A.A) Nebraska 22 (4th nationally in goals) Utah State 52 (Have won 11 of 12)

It is. That is a good point. SLU has 19 different goal scorers this season. And that doesn't include 2 players that were unable to play this sesason due to injury, and another who has missed the 2nd half of the season due to injury. (4 missing last night) Having a 2nd 11 is essential in college soccer to win at higher and the highest levels. Coaches will talk for days about it. And that begins with elevating recruiting, and it extends with the player development program. When Gaebe began as a Freshman, I received messages from some seeking more from her. I received similar messages about Caroline Kelly. They both have gone on to great careers. SLU also scores in a variety of ways. Differrent players have different skill sets. Izzy Luebbert for example has 8 assists this sesson. Katie Houck scored one of the biggest goals of the year and she was one of SLU's best players in that game. She came close again last night but a strong point blank save denied her chance. Those 2 play outside back defensively and contribute to both set pieces and flank runs to initiate the attack. Abbie Miller and Anna Lawler are defensive midfielders who often score in two ways, set piece headers in the offensive third as well as top of the box trailing the play. Both scored big goals against top 25 teams in this way. And both along with SLU's center backs, provide good passes to put SLU's front 4 players in position to score. Lyndsey Heckel and Sophia Stram are converted center backs who who are 2 more set piece targets who provide a lot of offense both finishing and otherwise. Their traffic on a corner allowed for Stram to win the rebound and set up a goal. SLU also generates a lot of offense through both its central midfield and wings. Groark, Simon, Larson, Kelly, Sawyer. Playing the best combination of players, in their most helpful positions, in various formations, with good game plans, and in game adjustments have also helped maximize success. The style of play and matchuos matter too. Every field player can and should be able to score, create goals, and help generate offense.

SLU 5 Duquesne 0 The game went mostly as expected. Two 4-2-3-1 formations. The Dukes sat 9 behind the ball at times. SLU used the width of the field, worked the sidelines, East/West service from the wings in the attacking third of the field. Larson and Kelly made multiple nice runs early, running at defenders, both in space and as a target. Gaebe received balls in space and she won several corners. A physical Duquesne team, committed several own third fouls for free kicks. Colder weather inspires more direct simple plays, traffic in front, and any way possible to get the ball over the goal line. ……………….. Scoring: 21st minute. Win 50/50 ball at midfield, Houck to Kelly wide, diagonal run, lay off to Gaebe right edge of the box, centers just past Groark for the in stride deflection off of the defender and over the line. 1-0. 38th minute. Gary pressures the defense to force the turnover to Sawyer, cuts in and shot deflected over the bar for a corner. Set piece corner, Sawyer missed the play for Stram near post, with Gary providing keeper traffic. But the keeper was caught playing far post and she didn’t get there in time and Sawyer’s corner went in off of the keeper. 2-0. 39th minute. Good combination play and pressure from Simon and Gary, cross sent in and Simon forced a turnover and she immediately took a shot low far post right edge of the 18. 3-0 47 Gaebe wins another corner. Stram wins the ball in front after Luebbert’s corner, lays it back wide to Luebbert who chips it far post to Kelly for the volley goal. 4-0. 75th minute. Good combination play from J Preusser and Gary. Jess feeds nice through ball in space to Sawyer who runs onto it, and she cuts inside, 10 yard left footed shot, deflects in off of keeper at close range. 5-0. …………... All healthy available field players played at least 20 minutes for SLU. (4 unavailable) ……………. Same SLU lineup for 7th straight game. 9th game since Gaebe began starting games. Time of SLU’s 1st goal in those games: 5th minute, 9th minute, 16th minute, 24th minute, 10th minute, 1st minute, 22nd minute, 1st minute, 21st minute. ……………. SLU moved to 4th nationally in shots per game behind BYU, Texas, UCLA. SLU moved into a tie for 2nd nationally with 63 goals on the season with Texas, behind BYU. Nebraska is 4th. SLU moved into a tie for 3rd nationally with Nebraska for total season assists at 61. SLU moved to 6th nationally in shutout percentage. ……………. RPI after Wednesdays games: BYU 1 (Big 12 Final) Brown 5 (Ivy Semifinals) SLU 13 Nebraska 19 (Big 10 Semifinals) Xavier 22 (Big East Semifinals) Utah State 52 (Mountain West Final) Dayton 71 (Season Complete) ……………. SLU is projected by most as a #3 or #4 NCAA Regional Seed with a win on Sunday. (Top 12 or Top 16 overall national seed) …………….

United Soccer Coaches Poll: SLU 21 BYU 6 Brown 14 Nebraska 15 Xavier 17 SLU 21

Creighton announced they have parted ways with Head Coach Ross Paule after 9 seasons. Paule was a stand out player on a few of the elite mid 1990’s Creighton Men’s Soccer teams. And, he had a 9 year successful MLS career. They never were able to get it going there. 2020 was one of their better seasons where he earned Big East Coach of the Year. Preseason pick this year for 3rd in the Big East, the SLU opponent, finished 10th.

SLU in the Polls: Top Drawer Soccer: 11 College Soccer News: 15 ……………. TDS: BYU 4 SLU 11 Brown 12 Nebraska 15 Xavier 20 ……………. CSN: BYU 5 Brown 12 SLU 15 Xavier 19 Nebraska 20 Dayton 24 ……………..

RPI after Sunday’s games: BYU 2 (Big 12 Quarterfinals) Brown 5 (Ivy Semifinals) SLU 13 Nebraska 18 (Dale has 25 goals) Xavier 22 (Big East Semifinals) Utah St. 61 (MW Semifinals) Dayton 66 Creighton 140 (Season Complete) SIUE 204 (Season Complete) Kansas City 234 (Season Complete) …………..

SLU 3 Saint Joseph’s 3 Wild one in Philly. Traditional 4-4-2 for SLU. (2nd straight game), but with a twist. At times it was a 4-3-3. Townsend at right wing is a natural defensive midfielder, and played deeper while Seth played higher on the other side. First start up top for Tanner with CJ. 4-4-2 for Saint Joseph’s. SLU free kick. Johnson forces turnover to T Anderson. Townsend to Tanner header, and a full extension by Jackson, left hand diving save, in the opening minute, to keep it 0-0. Several other very early chances for SLU, including Redmon on a ball reversal, as well as S Anderson to Coppola middle of the box as a target, turn and the shot went through the legs of Jackson but kicked out off of him wide. Saint Joseph’s first goal came against the run of play. A nice long ball up the line from Braendvang. Johnson service to Driehhuis who sprinted in between two SLU defenders to get a foot on it near post. Too much zonal marking there with a few defenders caught up higher. Foot race down the line and across the middle, half step slow on both. Lots of other good buildups for SLU without connecting the final play. Set piece service wasn’t sharp. Saint Joseph’s third goal came later. Right wing forced turnover and transition, led to a nice combination play to win a corner for Saint Joseph’s. The ensuing SLU clears were multiple headers straight up in the air, but sent back in for pressure. SLU ground clear to opposing player sends a 1v1 on right wing for the cross which was low and slow pulled back to top center of the box for the finish. 6 different players didn’t do enough on the play. But biggest were right wing defending and man marking in the box. 2-3. Hood in the back side middle from Braendvang. SLU was able to equalize late with more pressure, and salvage a draw in a game they outplayed the opponent but had a few sloppy moments. Right side short throw in from Flynn to Seth, who get around the defender and his near post service to Wrobel was knocked away by the keeper. But Tanner was there to knock in the rebound. 3-3. SLU put on even more pressure after the third goal but ran out of time for another. ……………… A few small things of center backs covering wings with outside backs and dmids caught up, and just a few failed clears for a few chances. Central defending was good. Seth and Mads provided good runs from the wings. Tanner did well at times with his chance up top. ………………. 5 NCAA Tourney bubble teams in the A10. Opportunity for SLU to host 2 conference tourney games and maybe 3 if they can win the first 2. …………… SLU RPI is 32. ………….: Friday night at home. …………..

SLU 2 VCU 0 4-2-3-1 for SLU with the same lineup for the 6th straight game. VCU played a variety of formations as expected. Mostly 4-1-3-2, and 4-3-3. ……………… Opening minute goal. SLU throw in up the right wing to Kelly who flicks a header on to Gaebe, who wins the corner. Mentioned several times previously that for the past few seasons, few players nationally win more corners than Gaebe. Most people don’t notice it. Luebbert has provided excellent service all season with end swingers from the left side. Heckel with a text book header. Chris Allen runs all of SLU’s set piece plays and as previously mentioned, it’s a big part of SLU’s offense. 1-0. …………… VCU as expected changed formations multiple times in the first half to give SLU different looks and it was effective enough to slow the game at times. SLU still controlled the half and had several chances to tack on more goals. Bagley moved around 3 positions, on the wing and both high and low at center mid. …………… 7th minute Kelly to the end line right side of the 18 service to Larson who fanned on the back heel goal. …………… Lawler later missed a point blank header off of a nice set piece from Houck. She makes that most of the time. Nice keeper save. She also missed another one just over the goal in the 2nd half. VCU gave up lots of set pieces and corners while collapsing the middle and blocking a lot of shots. …………. But SLU is very comfortable playing for corners and set pieces, and executing them. Lots of opportunity there but not efficient enough. There was also a lot of making the final play defensively for VCU throughout the game. And there was some hanging on to stay in the game for VCU throughout the first 20 plus minutes. Once the game settled down they were able to show off what they can do with their front 5. …………… 37th minute SLU’s 2nd goal was another SLU type of goal. Heckel’s long ball was flicked on by Simon and Gary. The defender didn’t get a good enough clear. Forced turnover and Simon takes a good shot, Gaebe following the rebound. 2-0. ………….. SLU wasn’t sharp at times and they were just a little bit off connecting some combination play. Sometimes the adjustment is to be more deliberate and sure with giving and receiving passes. …………… VCU has zero high quality first half chances. The closest was a long ball set piece that skipped through and Heckel’s clear deflected out for a goal kick. ……………. 2nd SLU opened the 2nd half with a lot of pressure on VCU but couldn’t connect from the final 20 yards. No quite sharp enough there. Finally in the 57th minute, VCU was able to win a corner and a free kick yellow on Gaebe off of the short play. Bagley can scoot, took the short corner looking for a shot. Harmless finesse free kick shot from 20. Then Matsuhisa to Bagley to Sarver for the lay off to Bulatovic who hit a good one from 22 yards but Puricelli was there to knock it over the goal. Gaebe immediately came back with a run that she cut in side of the 18, but again, another shot blocked by VCU. Ensuing corner was another one Lawler wanted back headed just over the bar. Missed opportunity again for SLU to keep extending to 3 or 4. …………. 63rd minute. Good combination play right side and Sawyer cross to Larson but she was just a half step late for the tap in goal in front of Karpovic. VCU countered with a ball in space to Matsuhisa Puricelli came out to cut the angle without a shot. …………… SLU was able to get the ball in space to Gaebe several times 1v1. VCU did well to force her wide at times, and I think Emily would like a few of those back that she normally would play more effectively. …………. 69th minute. Houck took a chance and a shot from deep on another free kick that was tipped over the bar by Karpovic. …………. 75th minute. Larson off of the throw curls a great ball for Sawyer in behind the defense and she hit a good low hard shot but a great save by Karpovic to keep it 2-0. 77th minute Matsuhisa from the wing hits a nice diagonal ball. a few failed clears and Bagley skies one in the box. Higgins’ shot was blocked nicely by Houck. But the ref missed it and called a PK and a yellow because Houck’s arms were a little extended. It was the wrong call on a bang bang play. Puricelli likes to dive to her right on PK’s. And the she was able to reach back for the save on Sarver, and Stram had the rebound clear. Still 2-0. ………… VCU played an organized, tight marking, physical game as expected. They hung around a bit as SLU was unable to extend to 3 or 4 despite some opportunities to do so. Not the most sharp or efficient for SLU but good enough. …………… SLU earned 11 corners and probably two more should have been goals. Just a few things to clean up there. And SLU had a lot of free kick opportunities. Most of SLU’s fouls were in the offensive third of the field putting on pressure. Most of VCU’s were in their own 3rd defending or in the middle of the field. ……………….. Elsewhere: Dayton scored in the 87th minute to defeat Saint Joseph’s 1-0. La Salle had a 2-0 win over Rhode Island. SLU will play Duquesne next Wednesday night. ……………….. No change to the SLU RPI which was 14 entering the game. …………….. Many of the bigger conference tourneys begin this Sunday and early next week. …………… End of the season for Kansas City losing 1-2 to Oral Roberts in the Summit tourney. …………… Emily Gaebe came into the game top 10 nationally in total goals, and top 20 nationally in goals per game. Her 14th goal of the season against VCU, puts her temporaily tied for 6th nationally in total goals. SLU opponent Eleanor Dale from Nebraska, leads the country with 23 goals. And yes she scored a nice goal in their loss to SLU.

A10 Conference Tourney Results: Duquesne 2 UMass 1. Duquesne was the #5 seed and UMass was the #4 seed. Both goals scored by Maya Matesa. Two strong individual efforts beating 2 defenders on each wing. First home loss of the year for UMass. Duquesne will play either SLU or VCU next week.

Coaching Carousel: Mark Francis retired after 25 years at Kansas. 262 wins. 9 NCAA Tourneys. 2 Sweet 16's. 2 Big 12 Titles. KU RPI in recent years: 201, 107, 98, 125, 11, 20, 93, 25, 69, 37, 124, 78, 47, 157, 57, 27, 79, 52. ............. Purdue has parted ways with Drew Roff after 9 seasons. 1 NCAA Tourney in 2021 when SLU played them. (Another example of strong recent SLU scheduling) Roff was successful at Illinois State and Indianpolis, prior to Purdue. He was an All American player at Michigan State. Quick success at Indianapolis before a strong run at Illinois State. 6 MVC Titles and 5 NCAA appearances at ISU in 8 seasons. Purdue RPI during Roff's tenure: 194, 186, 15, 225, 66, 97, 64, 180, 72. ................

First game recap. 2nd game scout links below. I will respectfully disagree about the first game assessment. Notes about that in the link. It wasn’t SLU’s best game, and credit to VCU. But, SLU had good combination play in the first half, but it didn’t result in as many shots, because 13 times they lost the ball over the end line ineffectively judging the wind. Tweaking those into more diagonal balls changes that. By contrast VCU had just 2 good scoring chances. It’s partly why VCU launched several very easy harmless shots from extreme distance in the 2nd. Sometimes shots can tell a story, sometimes not. Sometimes the very best chances in a game don’t produce a shot. It all depends. What you are likely to see is a similar formation for SLU but this time, Kelly and Larson will start on the wings, and, Groark in the middle. Last game SLU didn’t do this, and Gaebe and Larson were subbed out together for a long period, something else you are less likely to see. VCU is very experienced in several areas. They have not had the season they expected, which includes playing to the level of their competition often, good or bad. They will be ready for SLU. But that won’t matter if SLU plays well. Bagley is their key player. Even though they have been playing a 4-1-3-2 lately, they may revert back to a 4-2-3-1 and let her roam the center of the field. She works well with Matsuhiso and Sarver. But I expect heavy and high pressure from SLU ewely and often. Warm weather and rain is fine soccer weather. As long as there are no lightning delays it can rain all it wants. https://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29777-slu-womens-soccer-thread/page/62/#comment-762953 https://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29777-slu-womens-soccer-thread/page/66/#comment-764301

RPI after Thursday: BYU 1 (2 seed Big 12 Tourney) Brown 6 (1 seed Ivy Tourney) SLU 14 Xavier 21 (1 seed Big East Tourney) Nebraska 23 (2 seed Big Ten Tourney) Dayton 58 Utah State 61 (2 seed MW Tourney) Creighton 146 (season over) ...................

Scouting VCU for Friday night’s game. The Rams like to play a 4-3-3, but lately they have gone more with a 4-1-3-2. Bagley and Matsuhisa on the attacking wings are the keys to their offense as they are skilled high motor wingers who make diagonal runs, and they like to even cut in on their end line runs. And they will switch sides during the game as well. They can move the ball on offense. If VCU plays more of a 4–2-3-1 as they have before bs SLU, they will drop Bulatovic down and move Bagley to the middle. Bagley is a premier playmaker who is among the nation’s leaders in assists. Can’t give Bagley space or isolation. She will take a lot of free kicks too where she often finds Bulatovic in the air. Matsuhisa has some flare as well and she is unafraid to shoot from distance. Their whole team is willing to do that, which requires knowing when to close out a little higher. Sarver cleans up inside the 18. They score a lot of failed clears, 50/50 balls inside the 18. The back is less experienced but solid led by Kraszula in the defensive midfield who organizes well. She does a nice job of clogging the middle. If SLU can stretch the middle of the field, they can get some transition opportunities. The first game saw about 13 SLU through balls slide long with a brisk wind at their back. That will be less of a factor this time. SLU would take a game of space in the middle and matching front 4 vs back 4. I would expect SLU to pressure the VCU back 4, very high, to begin the halves. There will be set piece opportunities for SLU as well. VCU plays an organized, physical, tight marking style from the opening whistle. They are well coached. It will however be a challenge for them to keep that up over 90 minutes. SLU has made a couple of small tweaks since their first meeting.

Let’s see if I can help since there seems to be some confusion as well as a deleted post. The NCAA is reasonably good at using RPI. They are often curious at best with matchups and geography. Let’s take a look. Top 32 teams are seeded and, they all host a home game. Then after that, it changes. Each of the four regions are seeded 1-8 and all of those teams host a non-seeded team in round one. In rounds 2 and 3, the best remaining seeded team in that section of the region will host 4 teams, 3 games. Example: SLU finished 8th in RPI and they were given a #2 seed which seemed reasonable. Hosting Memphis instead of SIUE or Missouri State, made less sense. #4 seed Northwestern and #3 seed Arkansas did that. Had they defeated Memphis, they would have hosted #7 seed Mississippi St., as well as #3 seed Arkansas. Then they would have traveled to #1 seed Florida St. for the regional final. Because SLU lost to Memphis, Arkansas was next best and they hosted #6 seed Ohio State, and Memphis, before traveling to #1 seed Florida St. for the regional final. Memphis defeated #7 Mississippi St. 4-0 at Arkansas. And they lost 3-3 (PK’s) at Arkansas. Some would like this to change to one game a week and more schools hosting. Memphis by the way went on to back uo their big playoff run with a strong season this year. Ranked 3, 8, 9, in the polls with an RPI of 17. SLU of course is safely in the NCAA Tourney. What matters most are NCAA matchups, styles of play, available personnel, formations etc…the actual seed number matters less unless a team gets to host more games because of it. Some schools play better or worse vs different teams or playing styles. also play better in snow or 80 degree weather than others. This is where knowing the other teams well helps. SLU can win out and hope for certain results from some other schools and hope for the best seed possible to try to host more games. Top 8 overall or a 2 seed, guarantees 3 home games. They will need some help if they come up short of that. Many schools ahead of and behind SLU in the RPI are good, and, are of a similar level of ability. Parity increases every year. You never know what change the NCAA will make in a given year. …………….. RPI’s are essentially unchanged this week with few exceptions (BYU for example) this week until tonight. Lots of big games beginning tonight and running through the end of next week. And that will impact the RPI. BYU 2 Brown 7 SLU 14 Xavier 21 Nebraska 23 Dayton 58 Utah St. 71 Creighton 128 ………….

UCF is good. Their Men’s team essentially swapped one good league for another. Sun Belt is filled with some Men’s teams from Power 5 leagues. Big 12, SEC, don’t have Men’s Soccer, and some in the Pac 12, Big 10, ACC don’t either. League affiliation is less of a big thing in Men’s Soccer than it is in Women’s Soccer. It’s much bigger in Women’s Soccer. In Men’s Soccer Different schools roster build, in different ways. There are a variety of ways to be successful. UCF was ahead of the curve starting a Women’s program in the early 80’s. UCF has done well to hire coaches to keep it going. The Women’s side has a national team connection, as they train nearby often. The Men have had about 4 small pockets of a handful of years success at a time going back a few decades. Considering their current resources, this is a good time for them. And they have been having success. The UCF Men will be a top level seed this year. And the Women are on the bubble. (They’ll need a win over a good TCU team next week to get in the NCAA Tourney their first Big 12 season.) SLU Men regularly schedule a handful of AAC teams. UK for now is the only Sun Belt team.

United Soccer Coaches Poll: SLU 22 ………… BYU 7 Brown 14 Xavier 17 Nebraska 19 SLU 22 ………….

Emily Gaebe was named to the National Team of the Week at both College Soccer News, and Top Drawer Soccer, again this week.

Not to mention the fun and excitement of joy of victory, and the agony of defeat. Besides, teams don’t all have the luxury of having @slufanskip in goal so that they can sit 8 behind the ball and wait for PK’s.

The vast majority of college coaches I know, and I know a’few, prefer the Golden Goal. They didn’t like the rule change at all. They wanted to be different snd unique and not just copy everything Europe. Many of them would also disagree that it improves the quality of play. Many would say the opposite. The teams that sit back and don’t attack in OT are the same teams that sit back and don’t attack in regulation. No team that thinks it has a good chance to win would sit back instead in OT and play for unpredictable PK’s, out of fear of a counter.

SLU in the polls: Top Drawer Soccer: 11 College Soccer News: 15 …………… TDS: BYU 4 SLU 11 Brown 12 Nebraska 15 Xavier 25 ……………. CSN: BYU 5 Brown 14 SLU 15 Xavier 20 Nebraska 22 Dayton 25 ……………

SLU 3 Saint Joseph’s 0 4-2-3–1 for SLU. It is the 7th game in a row that SLU has scored in the 24th minute or sooner, sometimes much sooner. This is when Gaebe has started. It’s SLU’s 5th game in a row starting Gaebe at forward, Kelly and Larson on the wings, and, Groark in the middle. It’s been effective for SLU. SLU is a well balanced team. But the strength of its teams is, forcing turnovers, winning 50/50 balls, combination play in transition. …………….. SLU’s goals vs Saint Joseph’s were scored in typical SLU fashion, of winning 50/50 balls in the middle of the field with its defensive midfielders, combination play transition, and set pieces. 22nd minute. Lawler wins the 50/50 ball at midfield, and she distributed to Kelly on the wing, who sends Gaebe in space in on goal. 1-0. 56th minute. Earning corners, and finishing them in a variety of plays are practiced often at SLU. Luebbert to Heckel, to Gaebe, 2-0. 88th minute. Nice play by Gary in the middle of the field to J Preusser on the wing who curls for Sawyer behind the defense. 3-0. Lots of pressure and chances all game. SLU sat 3 of its best attacking players with a lot of time left, hoping to tack on one or two more with the next 11. …………… Shots 25-2. SLU is 6th nationally in shots per game. SLU is 7th nationally in assists per game. SLU is top 4 nationally in scoring offense. SLU is top 7 in assists per game. ……………… SLU won its 5th A10 regular season title in its last 6 seasons. They are seeking their 6th straight A10 Conference Tourney Title. ………………. Brown: Ivy League Champs. Nebraska: Big 10 Co-Champs. Xavier: One more game for Big East Co-Champions. BYU: Likely finishing 2nd by a half game in the Big 12. Utah State: Playing for 2nd place next week in Mountain West. 3rd at worst. ……………. Arkansas won its 4th SEC Title in 5 seasons. They made the Elite 8 the year they didn’t win it. SLU is 2-0 v Arkansas in the past few seasons. ……………. Current NCAA Top 16 seeds: 12 of 14 won their weekend games. 2 play Monday. Both should win. Number 1 lost but they will still be top 16. 1 will drop out. More will eventually lose in conference tourneys. ……………… RPI after Sunday: BYU 3 Brown 7 SLU 14 Xavier 21 Nebraska 23 Dayton 57 Utah State 70 Creighton 127 ……………… SLU hosts VCU Friday night in the A10 Conference Tourney. ……………..

4 straight Ivy League titles for Brown. 11 goals in 13 games for Raphino. They have an RPI of 7. They will be the top seed in the Ivy mini-tourney; which is back for the first time since 1981.

SLU 0 Dayton 0 SLU 4-4-2 Dayton 4-4-2, 4-3-3, and 4-2-3-1. Defensively it was SLU’s 6th shutout of the season, matching last season’s total, and one shy of the NCAA Quarterfinal team of two seasons ago. With CJ limited in off the bench minutes, SLU decided to play 2 forwards with mixed results. SLU was fine with the exception of about 20 minutes later in the first half, where there was too much containment and space given. Dayton was content to hit 25-30 yard shots, most of which were harmless other than a few. Very few it any shots or high level chances for UD inside the 18. Instead of switching to a 4-3-2-1, SLU kept the formation but changed its positioning within it. It cut off the backs to wing diagonal runs. Center Backs stepped through. Speed on the wings to pinch the middle but also deny wide. Strong game for Carlos, and the back line. Dayton did a good job disguising its formations and changing them within the game. But SLU made adjustments against that. Lots of opportunities for SLU within the 18 in the first 10-15 to get an early lead, and in the final 10-15 for the game winner. A point out of first, with one league game left. RPI is 31.

NCAA Soccer released its top 16 seeds through Thursdays results: 15 out of 16 are in the RPI top 16. They swapped out the 14 for the 18 team. SLU’s RPI is 23.