Billikens Open A-10 Soccer Tournament Saturday In St. Louis
Saint Louis University Billikens Will Open A-10 Women’s Soccer Tournament On Saturday At Home Versus Saint Joseph’s
The Saint Louis University women’s soccer team will begin the 2017 Atlantic 10 Conference Women’s Soccer Championship this Saturday at home against Saint Joseph’s. The quarterfinal matchup is set to kick off at 7 pm Saturday at Hermann Stadium.
The Billikens went 15-2-2 (7-2-1 A-10) in the regular season overall and 7-0-2 at home. They are undefeated in their last 19 games at Robert R. Hermann Stadium heading into Saturday’s contest.
SLU finished second in the conference to La Salle during the regular season.
Last season saw SLU put together a 14-3-2 regular season before falling in the A-10 quarterfinals to Dayton. The program heads into this year’s tournament looking for its first A-10 tournament championship since 2006.
Saint Louis University head coach Katie Shields has the Billikens in the conference tournament for the third time in her five seasons at the helm. A 3-0 win over Richmond on Senior Day this season marked the 50th win for the team during Shields’ tenure as head coach.
SLU scored 42 goals during the regular season while allowing just nine. Freshman Olivia Petit led the team in goals with 8, while junior Maddie Pokorny notched six.
Five Billikens scored at least five goals during the regular season and six players recorded at least ten points.
Goalkeeper Mary Niehaus started all 19 games and played almost 1,650 minutes in goal. The senior made 58 saves while allowing just nine goals for a 0.49 Goals Against Average.
Billikens Roster Features 10 St. Louisans
SLU’s roster features ten players that played their high school soccer in the St. Louis area, including senior Molly Ream. Ream led St. Dominic High School to consecutive Missouri state championships during her junior and senior seasons. The Crusaders were also ranked #1 in that nation at one point during that stretch.
Ream is the younger sister of former Billiken and current U.S. National Team star Tim Ream.
Pokorny was a four-year standout while at Webster Groves and was a second-team all-conference selection for SLU last season.
Sophomore Courtney Reimer was part of four consecutive state championships at Duchesne and was named the Missouri Class 2 Player of the Year after her senior season.
Niehaus was a first-team Missouri All-State selection as a senior at Nerinx Hall.
Semifinals & Finals To Be Played At VCU
The top 8 teams in the conference make the A-10 conference tournament. Saturday’s quarterfinal contests take place on the home field of the higher seed with semifinal matchups and the championship game to be played next weekend on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
The A-10 slate on Saturday will see #1 La Salle taking on #8 Dayton, #4 Duquesne vs #5 George Washington and #3 George Mason against #6 VCU.
A Billiken win on Saturday would mean a semifinal date with the winner of the George Mason-VCU contest.
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