Watch the Aces in the MVC Tournament
 The month of October produced steady improvement for the University of Evansville women's soccer team, so much, in fact, that the Aces go into November needing just two victories to advance to the NCAA Tournament. 

Possibly the biggest hurdle comes Friday, when coach Krista McKendree's fifth seeded Aces (6-11-1/2-4-0) play league champion and tournament host Creighton (13-3-2/5-1-0) in the semifinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.  Kickoff is at 6:00 CDT at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb.  #2 Missouri State plays #3 Illinois State in the opening match at 3:30.  Friday's winners meet Sunday at 2:05 for the championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.  Fox Sports Net will televise Sunday's match.

EVANSVILLE’S CHAMPIONSHIP TRADITION
Evansville has won more Missouri Valley Conference women’s soccer championships (five MVC regular season titles, six MVC Tournaments) than any other school.  Evansville’s six State Farm MVC Tournament titles came in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2008. Three players on the 2010 squad were regulars in Evansville's starting lineup for the 2008 championship team--goalkeeper Theresa Elstone, defender Sam Conrad and midfielder Kasey Cartwright.

ANOTHER UE-CREIGHTON SEMIFINAL
Friday's match will be the 11th MVC Tournament match between Evansville and Creighton.  Eight of the first 10 have been semifinal matches.  The Aces lead 7-3, but the Bluejays have won three of the last four, including a 1-0 quarterfinal victory at Omaha last year.  Evansville’s most recent tourney win over the Bluejays came in the 2006 semifinals.
 
A NEW FACE FOR CREIGHTON TO SEE
Freshman Vanessa Legault-Cordisco missed the first match against Creighton because she was training with Canada’s full National Team.  An outstanding playmaker, Legault-Cordisco was called up to the full Canadian National Team for the first time in April for their matches in China.

OFFENSE SCORING MORE...
The Aces scored just three goals in their first seven matches.  In the 11 matches since then, they’ve scored 16 goals.  The top four scorers are freshmen: Breanna Beine (7-2-16), Kaitlin Robinett (3-3-9), Vanessa Legault-Cordisco (1-6-8) and Stephanie Thompson (2-3-7). Robinett moved from defense to forward in mid-October while Legault-Cordisco moved from forward to defense.

...DEFENSE STOPPING MORE
Evansville has allowed only four goals in its last five matches, including 1-0 MVC?shutouts over Indiana State and Drake.  That's the best five-game span for UE's defense since the MVC championship season of 2008.

ABOUT THE BLUEJAYS
Regular season champion Creighton comes into the tournament with 11 victories in its last 12 matches.  Creighton won the regular season match against Evansville 3-0 at Omaha on Oct. 9, outshooting the Aces 29-5.  The Bluejays have outscored the opposition 41-13 this season, led by Brittney Neumann (9-5-23), Andrea Zuniga (7-8-22) and Erin Gunther (7-2-16).  Goalkeeper Alicia Jones has allowed only eight goals in 12 starts, and has five shutouts.

MVC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
UE goalkeeper Chaviel Harrison is the current MVC Defensive Player of the Week.  Harrison stopped eight shots in Sunday’s 1-0 quarterfinal win over Drake, and in the process broke the UE record for saves in a season that stood for 17 years.  She now has 111 saves, six more than the previous school record.

COACH MCKENDREE
This is the third year for former UE All-American Krista McKendree as head coach.  She led the 2008 squad to the MVC regular season and tournament titles, and became the first rookie coach in UE’s Division I history to lead a team to an NCAA Tournament appearance.  As a player at Evansville, she was part of three NCAA Tournament teams and was MVC Player of the Year in 2000.

ABBY GUERRA UPDATE
Aces’ soccer player Abby Guerra is now home in Glendale, Ariz.  The sophomore midfielder has made significant progress following a July 18 highway accident in her native Arizona that nearly took her life and has left her paralyzed.  The Abby Guerra Donation Fund has been established to help pay medical expenses.  Checks can be sent to the UE Athletics Dept., 1800 Lincoln Ave., Evansville IN?47722.  Donations will be forwarded to the fund custodian in Arizona.