Points and Prattle Playoff Preview (Vol. 7) – Nov. 3, 2009

Voice of: Joe Hansen

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Good morning St. Scholastica,

It’s time for a special Tuesday edition of Points and Prattle, and not just because we missed it last week. We’ll have 5 Questions this Friday, and then return to our normal programming schedule next week. Today is an important day for the Saints because it’s the semifinals of the UMAC Tournament for three of our Fall sports. So, this is a Playoff Preview edition of Points & Prattle (gotta love that alliteration!)

Men’s Soccer

• Finishing second in the UMAC, the Saints men’s soccer team will play host to Northwestern College this morning at 11:30 a.m. In their two regular season meetings, the Saints swept the Eagles by scores of 5-1 on the road at 2-0 at home.
• The Saints come in on a four-game undefeated streak while the Eagles come off a loss to Crown College last Friday night.
• The Saints men have not lost a UMAC first round match since the 1998 season.

Women’s Soccer

• The women’s team, who won their sixth straight UMAC regular season title this season, will play host to the University of Minnesota, Morris at 2 p.m. on Saints Field. CSS shut out the Cougars in each of their two meetings this season by scores of 1-0 and 4-0.
• Sophomore goalkeepers Bailey Mahlum and Erin Olejnicak each have two shutouts of the Cougars during their careers at CSS.
• The Saints women won the UMAC tournament in each of the past two seasons

Volleyball

• After getting the chance to watch the women’s volleyball team for the first time this past weekend, I can assure you that they can win any game against any opponent. They are extremely talented, but more importantly, they have a lot of fight in them.
• The Saints finished second to three-time defending champion Northwestern in this year’s regular season and will host Northland College on Tuesday evening (7 p.m. – Reif Gym in the BWC on campus). CSS swept the season series against the LumberJills, beating Northland in straight sets when they hosted them last week, but took five games in Ashland on Oct. 14 to earn the win.
• The Saints have not faced Northland in the postseason since the 2002 season, when the Saints swept the ’Jills 3-0.

Best of luck to each of our three teams playing today, and we hope that you will be able to get out to the games (despite the inconvenient timing of the soccer matches) to cheer on the Saints!

Enjoy your week,
-jh
Go Saints!