SLU Women's Soccer Thread

[Lord Elrond]

5-1 SLU, Hannah Larsen scores off a nice assist from Rylee Howard 

[Lord Elrond]

Just when I realized I had lost track of the score, Emily Fox makes it 5-1 SLU. Not sure where I screwed up

[Lord Elrond]

6-1 SLU goal by Lucie Schwartz.

By the way its really weird seeing the clock count down at CityPark, I’m used to seeing it go up at the MLS games

[Lord Elrond]

6-1 final score, SLU wins

[OkieBilliken]

That was fun!    I yelled at an SIUe fan after they scored and celebrated like they won the World Cup to look at the scoreboard.  I might in fact be drinking a bit.   That 2nd half onslaught fondly reminded me of last year. Emily Gaebe was by far the best player on the field.  It’s scary how good she is.   Now let’s get that damn boot back.  

[Lord Elrond]

Hopefully that gives them a boost for the rest of the season.

[billikenfan05]

26 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

That was fun!    I yelled at an SIUe fan after they scored and celebrated like they won the World Cup to look at the scoreboard.  I might in fact be drinking a bit.   That 2nd half onslaught fondly reminded me of last year. Emily Gaebe was by far the best player on the field.  It’s scary how good she is.   Now let’s get that damn boot back.  

White shirt, Pink CITY hat?
 

[OkieBilliken]

5 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

White shirt, Pink CITY hat?
 

I am in full SLU regalia.  The dude I yelled had was repping a SIUE shirt with a nice beer belly.  He was on the SLU side, f him.  

[billikenfan05]

3 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

I am in full SLU regalia.  The dude I yelled had was repping a SIUE shirt with a nice beer belly.  He was on the SLU side, f him.  

No I mean he was in a white shirt and pink city hat, correct?

[OkieBilliken]

11 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

No I mean he was in a white shirt and pink city hat, correct?

Didn’t notice the hat he had on but he was doing full 360 spins like they just won something.  

[Pistol]

2 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

Just when I realized I had lost track of the score, Emily Fox makes it 5-1 SLU. Not sure where I screwed up

Gaebe was called offsides when she wasn't. So it wasn't 4-1 at that time.

[Lord Elrond]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Gaebe was called offsides when she wasn't. So it wasn't 4-1 at that time.

That explained it. I had a great view of it, and there was no way it was offsides, so I just got happy about the goal and didn’t catch it.

[courtside]

 

Xavier Musketeers

New head coach, Dean Ward is a familiar face as the former top assistant at Dayton. And so far, it’s business as usual for the recent top 25 caliber program. 

 

Xavier lost 4 starters to transfer with the coaching change, and, they lost a couple of others to graduation. But they returned 7, and they added to transfers to and 2 Freshmen to the lineup. Notably, Xavier is getting more production from a few returning players.

 

Homecoming for Billiken Elise Le, as she started 3 years at left back with many of Xavier’s current and recent players. 

 

Local angle, reserve forward Olivia Baca and her timely goals off of the bench will be reunited with former club teammates Nina Preusser and Ulla Sharp. 

 

This year’s Xavier team is scoring goals and they have been much more efficient with opportunities that they didn’t finish in recent years. 41 shots for Xavier in their NCAA loss to Tennessee past year tor example. And that has them in the top 15 nationally thus far. 

 

Wide service from wings in the run of play, to near post headers or 2nd and 3rd runners on failed clears. Xavier also has several set piece goals this season including corners. Have to get goal side. 

 

Xavier is expected to play their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation which SLU also plays. Xavier has also played a 3-6-1 at times to maximize personnel regardless of position. They aren’t as settled and committed at one of the outside back positions. This often looks like a 3-2-4-1. They rely heavily on Bain in back with this formation in between Reed and Lawson. 

 

Natalie Bain is an All American center back, one of the best nationally. Maria Galley is an All Big East goalkeeper. Xavier has moved central attacking midfielder Sam Wiehe to the defensive midfield out of need this year. She is Xavier’s best passer, while being a strong finisher too. She’s next to a true Freshman in McKinley Barry. 

 

Emma Flick has been making wide runs and providing service. bookend by almost Billiken recruit and two way wing Freshman Sam Erbach on the other side. This is more often how Xavier gets forward, Wiehe and Bain, wide to the wings. Regan Dancer moved inside to the central attacking mid role, and she provides pace along with Flick. Much of her game has been long diagonal runs from midfield as Xavier hasn’t worked the middle of the field as much or as well as they’d like.

 

Need to play a mistake free game. Defend wide service, first clear from set pieces. Aggressively pressure high, speed up the game. and not let Xavier get comfortable with their middle 3 in back. The road team has won the last 4 meetings. 

 

It’s another opportunity for SLU to get a big win against a high level team. 

[Lord Elrond]

3-2 win for SLU! Goals by Audrey Smith, Emily Gaebe, and Hannah Sawyer. The win looks like it goes to Emily Puricelli, who faced 20 shots, 12 on goal, and made 10 saves. SLU only generated 8 shots, only 5 on goal, but got 3 of them to go in. Kind of a reverse on their normal play. Note: I got this only from the box score, I refuse to give any money to FloSports to watch them because they are a crummy, sleazy bunch in my opinion. @Pistol and @billikenfan05 were supposed to be there in person, it will be interesting to listen to their next podcast.

[OkieBilliken]

19 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

3-2 win for SLU! Goals by Audrey Smith, Emily Gaebe, and Hannah Sawyer. The win looks like it goes to Emily Puricelli, who faced 20 shots, 12 on goal, and made 10 saves. SLU only generated 8 shots, only 5 on goal, but got 3 of them to go in. Kind of a reverse on their normal play. Note: I got this only from the box score, I refuse to give any money to FloSports to watch them because they are a crummy, sleazy bunch in my opinion. @Pistol and @billikenfan05 were supposed to be there in person, it will be interesting to listen to their next podcast.

Huge win beating an undefeated ranked team on the road.  It’s great to see them scoring multiple goals again!   

[courtside]

On 9/12/2024 at 9:59 AM, courtside said:

 

Xavier Musketeers

New head coach, Dean Ward is a familiar face as the former top assistant at Dayton. And so far, it’s business as usual for the recent top 25 caliber program. 

 

Xavier lost 4 starters to transfer with the coaching change, and, they lost a couple of others to graduation. But they returned 7, and they added to transfers to and 2 Freshmen to the lineup. Notably, Xavier is getting more production from a few returning players.

 

Homecoming for Billiken Elise Le, as she started 3 years at left back with many of Xavier’s current and recent players. 

 

Local angle, reserve forward Olivia Baca and her timely goals off of the bench will be reunited with former club teammates Nina Preusser and Ulla Sharp. 

 

This year’s Xavier team is scoring goals and they have been much more efficient with opportunities that they didn’t finish in recent years. 41 shots for Xavier in their NCAA loss to Tennessee past year tor example. And that has them in the top 15 nationally thus far. 

 

Wide service from wings in the run of play, to near post headers or 2nd and 3rd runners on failed clears. Xavier also has several set piece goals this season including corners. Have to get goal side. 

 

Xavier is expected to play their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation which SLU also plays. Xavier has also played a 3-6-1 at times to maximize personnel regardless of position. They aren’t as settled and committed at one of the outside back positions. This often looks like a 3-2-4-1. They rely heavily on Bain in back with this formation in between Reed and Lawson. 

 

Natalie Bain is an All American center back, one of the best nationally. Maria Galley is an All Big East goalkeeper. Xavier has moved central attacking midfielder Sam Wiehe to the defensive midfield out of need this year. She is Xavier’s best passer, while being a strong finisher too. She’s next to a true Freshman in McKinley Barry. 

 

Emma Flick has been making wide runs and providing service. bookend by almost Billiken recruit and two way wing Freshman Sam Erbach on the other side. This is more often how Xavier gets forward, Wiehe and Bain, wide to the wings. Regan Dancer moved inside to the central attacking mid role, and she provides pace along with Flick. Much of her game has been long diagonal runs from midfield as Xavier hasn’t worked the middle of the field as much or as well as they’d like.

 

Need to play a mistake free game. Defend wide service, first clear from set pieces. Aggressively pressure high, speed up the game. and not let Xavier get comfortable with their middle 3 in back. The road team has won the last 4 meetings. 

 

It’s another opportunity for SLU to get a big win against a high level team. 

 

SLU 3 Xavier 2

 

Corcoran Field, Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Another wild game in the series. The last 5 have been won by the road team. 

…………….

SLU: 4-1-3-2 and 4-2-3-1

Xavier: 4-2-3-1 and 3-6-1 (essentially a 3-2-4-1)

……………

SLU opened the game in its more offensively aggressive 4-1-3-2 formation, something they rarely do to start games, against high level teams. It was welcomed. They will do it after half time. They will do it to score early against a weaker team. 

 

SLU is a much more dangerous team in this formation. And with the current personnel, playing the 4-1-3-2 as the default formation most of the time would be very effective.

 

In this formation. SLU only plays 1 central defensive midfielder, Elise Le. And they add 1 more forward to play 2 forwards vs 1. So SLU played Gaebe and Fox together up top, later rotating other forwards. Smith Simon and Larson were across the wings and attacking middle of the midfield. Fox was rewarded for her strong game vs SIUE. Common theme this year, if you produce in practice/training, and especially the previous game, you get earned the opportunity to start next game.

……………..

1st minute goal. Unfortunately, despite this change, SLU was down a goal all of 20 seconds into the game. Middle of the field turnover and transition for Xavier. It looked like w foul from behind no call. Turnover. Transition goal. Xavier quickly it played wide to Erbach who smartly one times the flick cross not allowing the defense to adjust in transition. Hansson was left unmarked in the middle of the 18. She calmly one timed the header into the far corner. Hansson is the big target forward transfer up top for Xavier. But SLU wisely stuck with it.

……………

SLU had a chance in the 5th minute as Simon forced a turnover, she overpowered the defender, she made a diagonal run, but nice defending on the through ball for Larson in alone for a potential goal.Simon was strong on the ball throughout. Good defending and good forward runs, a shot or 2. These are valuable as she is 1 of 2 in the middle of the field and she isn’t going to chase down 

……………..

Xavier was able to find something playing wide right side to Erbach 3 or 4 times in the first half, getting her isolated for service against an outside back. 

……………..

15th minute SLU goal. Simon settles a pass back to the goal from Heckel. She played it wide to Gaebe who made a side of the box run inside the 18. She played a hard low short cross to Fox battling with Reed 8 yards in front of goal. They both go down. Audrey Smith gets to 50/50 ball first before Lawson and she taps it in 1-1. Again, having the extra attacker gave SLU numbers in the final 25. SLU had 5 attacking players instead of 4. 

……………..

SLU remained in this 4-1-3-2 formation until SLU took a 2-1 lead. This does open the midfield for longer counters. Flick and Dancer have the speed to do that. Dancer had a shot wide from 20 in transition. Many of Xavier’s shots in the game were well beyond the 18 yard box out to 25. Some weren’t even shots at all. 

…………..

18th minute SLU chance, Elise Le played it wide to Larson, who takes it to the end line, draws two defenders, cuts it back to Gaebe, who fanned a bit on the shot from 6. 

…………….

Katie Houck did a nice job defending the pace of Flick on the wing throughout. She played higher without taking unnecessary risks and she won several balls and Flick was quiet much of the game. Xavier found some space on the other side earlier in the game, with Dancer and Erbach, but some adjustments were made, and again, many shots were 20-25 yards out. 

……………..

When you play only 1 defensive midfielder, there will be space and transition at times. But you have to live with that to generate more offense. The idea is to outscore the other team in a higher scoring chance game. Get a multi goal lead. And that’s where SLU is more effective. I’ll take SLU’s full attacking arsenal playing against many other teams.

……………..

2 years ago Katie Houck scored a free kick goal from distance at Xavier. It was mishandled by Galley who had a tough game. She has since become an All Big East goalkeeper, so Free kicks have to curled to runners vs straight on goal. There were several in the game that had high potential for SLU, but they ended up harmless. Still need to be more dangerous on set pieces. 

…………….

25th minute. Xavier changed its formation to a 3-2-4-1 to produce more offense and match SLU.

…………….

31st minute SLU goal. Larson and Miller give and go middle of the field. Larson played up up the line to Gaebe who beat the wide defenders to cut deep into the side of the 18. She drew 3 defenders before squring a pass on the ground to Sawyer all alone from 8 yards. She buried it on the ground past Galley. 2-1 SLU. 

……………..

This is when SLU decided to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation because they had the lead. This changed the tempo for the rest of the half. SLU controlled much of the rest of the half. Xavier had a chance as Wiehe played a nice long ball wide to Lawson who was 1v1 inside the 18 left side of  the box. Her shot through Leonard was on the ground right at Puricelli.

……………….

One of the things that helped is the depth of SLU vs the limited depth of Xavier. That made a difference. Several starters were able to sit a long while later first half with a SLU lead.

………………

Half time adjustments.

………………

SLU continued playing a 4-2-3-1 as they had the lead. Lang played as the 2nd defensive midfielder and a forward sits. An alternative strategy would have been to play the 4-1-3-2 and play aggressively on offense for a 2 goal lead. 

……………..

48th minute. Schreiber middle of the field up to Simon who turned past a defender. She played a long ball to Gaebe in space 1v1 with Bain. Two All Americans. But Gaebe lost a half step on a bad bounce off of her leg and Bain caught her from behind just enough to forced short side wide shot from 12 yards. Better 1st touch and that’s a goal. Good recovery from Bain. 

………………

50th minute. Le played it wide to Gaebe. Side of the box 1v1 with Bain again, She walked around Bain, but good help defense came over to step into the play which allowed Bain to recover and strip the ball from Gaebe from Behind at the 6, wide of goal. Gaebe went down but it was a good no pk call there. 

…………….

Still 50th minute. Le won one of her many 50/50 balls middle of the field. Big time game vs her good friends and old team. She played it up to Larson who made on of her many diagonal runs at goal. She forced 4 defnders to their left while she dropped a no look pass to the other side for Gaebe in alone from 6 yards, wide open either side, but instead of low corner either side, Emily blasted it straight at the head of goalkeeper Galley. In self defense, Galley put her arms up and tipped it over the goal. 9 times out of 10 that’s a 3-1 game right there. And that’s happened several times this year with Gaebe. 

…………….:

Pregame scout. One of the adjustments that Xavier made during the game was switching to a 3-6-1 or 3-2-4-1 formation. This was Xavier’s version of trying to create more offense and go with your best personnel. So that meant subbing out its right back and going only 3 across the back. Slater came in to play next to Berry in the defensive midfield. In front of them Flick, Dancer, Wiehe, Erbach, with Hansson up top. This moved Wiehe into a more attacking position and it gave Xavier 5 attacking players instead of 4. Different formation than how SLU did it. This is also why so many of Xavier’s shots were from 20 yards out and beyond as opposed to on the door step chances, of which SLU had more despite the shot differential. 

 

This almost paid dividends in the 58th minute as Dancer ran at 3 defenders side of the box. The clear went to Wiehe who again moved up higher. She played a give and go with Dancer, back post cross just beyond Hansson for the tying goal. amore numbers up front with your better players to create more dangerous chances. Dancer and Wiehe worked well together in the central attacking midfield. 

 

SLU had some combination play and transition but good defending at the 18 from Xavier.

………………

68th minute Xavier goal. SLU tried to play a long ball over the top in space to Sawyer from Lang. Nice leaping header by Lawson to save the breakaway. The ensuing play was Berry back to Reed, up the line to Dancer. 2 SLU defenders overran the play and Dancer was able to make a long diagonal run  to the 18. She went around Heckel at full speed and she cut a pass back top of the box, to a wide open Wiehe. Her one timer blast from the 18 was perfectly placed in the upper right side netting. 2-2. Again, the two defensive areas of wide service and transition defense, especially transition defense.

……………..

The Xavier equalizer came when Gaebe, Larson. Simon, were all on the bench. SLU stayed in the 4-2-3-1 for another 5 minutes. Then SLU subbed those 3 back into the game. and, they switched back to the 4-1-3-2 subbing Brinkman out, who was in for Lang. Sawyer stayed in the game.

…………..

1 minute later, long service from Houck to Gaebe at the 16, but Gaebe’s header didn’t have enough on it.  

 

Same minute, Schreiber played it up to Larson who won a thrown in. Gaebe received the throw and she beat Berry to the end line. Gaebe’s cross grazed the crossbar just over Galley, to the other side just beyond Sawyer. 

…………..

79th minute. Xavier transition middle of the field turnover. Erbach made a run to the 18 down the middle, drew 4 defenders. Baca smartly stepped back to be a target on Erbach’s left wing. Baca settled the pass and blasted it left foot right at Puricelli from 12 yards out. The ball went straight up into the air after the save and Emily pounced on it. 

………….

82nd minute SLU goal. SLU pressured. Smith to Gaebe, who turned, held off the defender Bain, she and chipped it over the defense back to Smith but it was headed out back to Gaebe. Emily 1v1 vs Bain, stepped left, went right, dribbled up from the 25 to the 18, and she ripped a shot far left post low into the side netting. 3-2.

……………

SLU switched back to the 4-2-3-1 for the final 8 minutes. 3-2 Final.

……………

Some game notes:

 

SLU had a willingness to start a tough road game with a more aggressive offensive look, and, they had a willingness to stick with it and to go back to it multiple times during the game. And that was a big difference in the game. It also can increase the efficiency of finishing chances and scoring more goals. When SLU lost 2-1 to Penn State for example, SLU had an analytics expected goals (xG) of 3.21 vs 1.72 for Penn State. 

……………..

SLU tweaked the outside back matchup in the first half, to better fit need in that particular game. 

……………..

SLU made some minor adjustments to transition defense, with group defending and stepping out higher to the 20, rather than getting pushed back to the 16 defensively. 

…………….

Big win for SLU. Xavier is a good team. A top 15 team right now. But SLU is pretty good too. It’s the 5th straight road win in the series. 

………………

SLU missed an opportunity for a win vs Penn State. Played well enough, but didn’t finish. And they should have had 5-0, 3-0 wins over KC and Creighton. But they have had better results in all of the other games. Conference slate is next. 

……………:

[Pistol]

14 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

3-2 win for SLU! Goals by Audrey Smith, Emily Gaebe, and Hannah Sawyer. The win looks like it goes to Emily Puricelli, who faced 20 shots, 12 on goal, and made 10 saves. SLU only generated 8 shots, only 5 on goal, but got 3 of them to go in. Kind of a reverse on their normal play. Note: I got this only from the box score, I refuse to give any money to FloSports to watch them because they are a crummy, sleazy bunch in my opinion. @Pistol and @billikenfan05 were supposed to be there in person, it will be interesting to listen to their next podcast.

 

14 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

Huge win beating an undefeated ranked team on the road.  It’s great to see them scoring multiple goals again!   

We were indeed there, along with Carter Chapley, 10 of the 12 members of my U10 team, and their parents. This was along with a surprisingly large SLU contingent. Becca Wolterman, Hannah Sawyer, and Elise Le are from the Cincinnati area and had friends and family in the house. Le is a grad transfer from Xavier, so she had a particularly large cheering section with what appeared to be current and recent students. As it turns out, Wolterman's sister was the student teacher in my son's classroom last year. Small world.

Perfect night for a game. Free admission and parking. Parking is tight but we got there early. $5 16 oz. beers in the concession trailer. The field itself is the former football stadium (the program was disbanded about 50 years ago), and they have a few rows of bleachers on a large hillside that is mostly grass. The kids ran around up there most of the time. 05 got his first Skyline Chili experience before the game.

Didn't feel great when Xavier went up 1-0 just 21 seconds in. It was all way too easy - they got in deep on the wing, crossed it, and tucked a header inside the far post. This seems to be how they wanted to get chances all night, and SLU's backline struggled with their wings.

Gaebe was dangerous, as usual. Created the first two goals with her speed, coming around the last defender outside to work it back to the middle. Then her goal was an absolute rocket into the left side of the net. Sawyer's celebration was maybe the highest I've seen a player jump after scoring. Had to mean more in front of friends and family. She's coming off injury but looked faster than ever.

We were outshot 20-8 and need to work on minimizing those opportunities for the opponent, but this was a road game against the #16 team in the nation and you take this win no matter how it happened.

[billikenfan05]

Sawyer back on the field after injury and making an impact. At least one Xavier player felt that impact. 

[Pistol]

47 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Sawyer back on the field after injury and making an impact. At least one Xavier player felt that impact. 

She absolutely wrecked that XU player. And then began protesting the call before it even happened! She's a blast to watch.

[Pistol]

 

[courtside]

 

2026 SLU commit: Hanalei “Hana” Allen. 

Hana is a 5’8 defender who tackles well, and who also has the pace to get forward. She frequently takes set pieces for her team. Hana plays outside back/defensive midfielder for Eclipse 06/07 team in Chicago. She also plays high school soccer at Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn, where she was an IHSSCA Illinois All State selection this past season after being also named to the All Dupage County team.  

 

Hana is a club soccer teammate of 2025 SLU commits Sydney Dulak and Addison Stanciak. They play in the Midwest Conference in the ECNL. Current SLU players Emily Fox and Julia Simon. also played at Eclipse. 

[courtside]

 

NCAA RPI:

SLU 47

……………….. 

Non-Conference opponent’s RPI:

Penn State 6

BYU 23

Xavier 29

Creighton 43

……………

Kansas City 126

Missouri 180

Missouri State 217

SIUE 287

………………

For the past several seasons, SLU has been able to schedule stronger non-conference opponents. And since the A10 hasn’t been a top 9 league much of the time, it’s been important to schedule several strong teams mixed in with other games non-conference. 

 

Last year for example, SLU had 5 non-conference opponents in the RPI top 50. 4 of them were in the RPI top 25. This year they have 4 in the RPI Top 50 for now. Also, last year there was just 1 other RPI top 100 A10 team. So far there are 3 others. And overall, the league is doing better a little bit better this season.

 

SLU missed opportunities for wins over KC, Creighton, and Penn State, all games in which SLU was well in position to win. 

………………….

Top 100 A10 non-conference showings:

Loyola Chi 49

UMass 53

Duquesne 54

Dayton 86

 

A10 Programs between 100-200:

LaSalle 130

Fordham 150

Saint Joseph’s 159

Saint Bonaventure 182

Davidson 188

Richmond 199

 

A10 Programs between 200-300:

George Mason 212

Rhode Island 218

VCU 221

George Washington 253

……………….

[courtside]

This week:

United Soccer Coaches Poll: 22

Top Drawer Soccer Poll: 24

[OkieBilliken]

The game tomorrow scares the heck out of me.   UMass is playing really well, have won 4 in a row, including a road win at a very good Boston College.   I think SLU conference regular season unbeaten streak stands at 20.  Not a time to have that end.   This will be one of the toughest tests of the conference season.   @ 4pm ET?   Does UMass not have lights?   Who do they think they are, SLU baseball??

[Pistol]

7 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

The game tomorrow scares the heck out of me.   UMass is playing really well, have won 4 in a row, including a road win at a very good Boston College.   I think SLU conference regular season unbeaten streak stands at 20.  Not a time to have that end.   This will be one of the toughest tests of the conference season.   @ 4pm ET?   Does UMass not have lights?   Who do they think they are, SLU baseball??

As far as I can tell, Rudd Field at UMass does not have lights. At least they play on grass.

UMass is 53rd in the opening RPI rankings, just behind SLU at 47 (Loyola is 49th and Duquesne 54th).

This is a tough game to open up the A10 season with. Loyola and Duquesne are also in the first half of the A10 schedule, too, so it's a pretty front-loaded conference slate, with the exception of a road game at 6-2 Dayton to finish the regular season.