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Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

Tournament Homepage

SOMERS, Wis. (Nov. 5, 2014)-- The postseason continues this week for the fourth-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside women's soccer team, hosting the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Semifinals and Championship Game on Friday and Sunday at Wood Road Field.
 
The 2014 GLVC regular season champion Rangers (15-0-3), the top seed in the tournament face fourth-seeded Truman State University in semifinal #2 on Friday at 1:30 p.m. The day begins with an 11 a.m. showdown featuring sixth-seeded Quincy University and seventh-seeded Missouri University S&T. Semifinal winners will meet on Sunday at noon. All three games will be contested at Wood Road Field where the Rangers own a 41-1-7 record over the last 49 games.
 
Quarterfinal Action Rewind: The GLVC Tournament began on Sunday, Nov. 2 with four games held at campus sites of the top four seeds. Top-seeded UW-Parkside blasted eighth-seeded Lewis University 3-0 while Truman State outlasted fifth-seeded Drury University 1-0. Seventh-seeded Missouri S&T stunned host and second-seeded Bellarmine University 2-0 while sixth-seeded Quincy University needed penalty kicks to knock off third-seeded Rockhurst University. The score was deadlocked 1-1 after 110 minutes of play with the Hawks slipping past the hosts 5-3 on penalty kicks.
 
Previous Meetings: All three teams traveling to Somers have already played at Wood Road Field this season. The Rangers dismantled Missouri S&T 7-0 on Sept. 12 to open conference play with Jillian Hetfleisch netting a hat-trick. The Rangers edged Truman State 2-1 on Oct. 17 while downing Quincy by an identical score just two days later. Emily Konior netted the game-winner in both contests, converting a penalty kick on both occasions.
 
2013 GLVC Tournament Rewind: UW-Parkside advanced to the Championship Game last season, falling 2-1 to host Quincy in the final. The Rangers downed Drury 1-0 at Wood Road Field in the quarterfinals while utilizing an overtime goal from Niekie Pellens in the 98th minute to down Truman State 2-1 in the semifinals. UW-Parkside has won the GLVC Tournament on four occasions, hoisting the trophy in 2010, 2008, 2004 and 2003.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (15-0-3, 12-0-3 GLVC) heads into Friday, having gone 428 minutes without allowing a goal, a streak spanning back to Oct. 19. The Rangers finished the regular season with a 0-0 draw against Lewis on Oct. 29 before rolling the Flyers 3-0 just four days later. Lauren Bialas entered as a sub in the 62nd minute and scored her first career goal less than two minutes later in a scramble in front of the net. Jillian Hetfleisch added a goal in the 76th minute while Taylor Schiffer-Jander capped off the scoring with a goal in the 80th minute.
 
Defenders Emily Konior and Karley Mecko are the Rangers top scorers, each with eight goals on the season. Konior additionally leads the squad in points with 18 on the season. Hetfleisch and Schiffer-Jander each have six goals and three assists while Bailey Reed has found the back of the net on four occasions. Pellens is the team leader in assists with 11 helpers on the season while Ashley Meyer has notched five assists in 2014. 17 of the 21 Rangers who have seen action on the pitch this season have netted at least a point, including goals from 13 different Parkside student-athletes.
 
Goalkeeper Mallory Geurts has started all 18 games this season for the Green and White, allowing just four goals all season with a 0.22 goals against average. Geurts has helped the team collect 14 shutouts on the season while making 35 saves over the course of the year.
 
About the Bulldogs: Truman State (13-4-2, 10-3-2 GLVC) returns to Wisconsin after downing Drury 1-0 on Sunday. Megan Oostendorp was the hero on Sunday, scoring in the 79th minute for what turned out to be the contest's lone score at Bulldog Soccer Park.
 
The Bulldogs have been unbeatable at home, sporting a 9-0 mark but own just a 3-4-2 record in true road games.
 
Alexis Heffernan has scored 10 of the Bulldog's 27 goals this season and has 23 points on the year whule Megan Frkovic has three goals this season. Melanie Hunt and Allison Lockett sit tied for the team lead in assists, both collecting four in 2014.
 
The Bulldogs have utilized two different goalies this season in Nicole Sparks and Katie Mattingly. Sparks started the opening nine games of the season, collecting 29 saves and posting a goals against average of 0.88. Katie Mattingly has started the last 10 games for Truman, owning a 0.43 goals against average with 40 saves. The two keepers have combined for 11 shutouts on the season and have yielded just 12 goals in 19 games.
 
About the Hawks: Defending GLVC Champion Quincy (8-8-3, 7-6-2 GLVC) dropped four in a row against Lewis (2-1) on Oct. 17, UW-Parkside (2-1) on Oct. 19, Maryville University on (1-0) on Oct. 24 and University of Missouri-Saint Louis (1-0 ot) on Oct. 26 before closing the regular season with a 1-0 win over Truman State.
 
Quincy tied Rockhurst 1-1 in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament but advanced after converting all five of its penalty kicks in a 5-3 shootout victory.
 
Ashley Burton leads Quincy in points with 11 on the season while sitting tied for the team lead in both goals (four) and assists (three). Mackenzie Rief and Haylye Markway have each found the back of the net on four occasions while Taylor Lindwedel shares the team lead in assists with three.
 
Megan Swanson has played all 1,779 minutes in goal for the Hawks, netting 86 saves on the season with a goals against average of 0.81. Swanson has allowed 16 goals on the season and has posted 10 shutouts in 2014.
 
About the Miners: Missouri S&T (9-9, 8-7 GLVC) provided the biggest surprise in the GLVC Quarterfinals, knocking off second-seeded Bellarmine 2-0 in Louisville, Kentucky. Sabrina Hostler carried the Miners in that game, scoring in the 10th minute and again in the 76th minute, helping S&T snap a two-game slide.
 
The Miners were outscored 8-3 in their two final games of the regular season, falling 5-2 at Rockhurst on Oct. 26 and stumbling 3-1 to Drury on Oct. 29.
 
Hostler has scored 10 of the Miners' 23 goals this season while also notching two assists.  Julie Bride has four goals in 2014 while Kendall Fitzpatrick has a team-best five assists.
 
Netminder Kaitlyn Desiter has played in 16 of Missouri S&T's 18 games this season, racking up 82 saves with a goals against average of 1.92. Carrie Levy has appeared in six games and has made three starts, making 18 saves with a goals against average of 1.50.
 
NCAA Rankings: UW-Parkside ranks in the top 25 nationally in NCAA Division II in nine statistical categories. The Rangers lead the nation (228 teams ranked) in shutout percentage (0.776) and rank second in goals against average (0.216). The team ranks fourth in both winning percentage (.917) and save percentage (.897) while sitting 10th in total assists (38), 12th in assists per game (2.11), 15th in total points (122), 19th in total goals (42) and 24th in points per game (6.78). The Ranger offense sits just outside the top 25 in goals per game, ranking 29th nationally at 2.33.
 
Individually, Mallory Geurts ranks second in goals against average and 21st in minutes played while Niekie Pellens rates sixth nationally in total assists.
 
Academic Excellence: Karley Mecko was named to the Capital One Academic All-District 4 Team on Oct. 30. The 11 player team is comprised of Division II student-athletes from the GLVC, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
 
The award is selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America and recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. To be eligible a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at her current institution and be nominated by her sports information director.
 
16 and Counting: Under head coach Troy Fabiano the Rangers have experienced 16 straight winning seasons a streak spanning all the way back to 1999, Fabiano's second year as coach. He currently owns a 219-73-29 career mark at UW-Parkside, making seven NCAA appearances and winning four GLVC Championships.
 
The Rangers clinched its 16th straight winning campaign with a 2-0 win over Maryville University on Oct. 10.

Four and Counting: UW-Parkside has made the NCAA Tournament the past four seasons and five of the last six years. The Rangers have qualified for the Big Dance in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2004 and 2003. The Rangers advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament in 2008 while making an appearance in the Sweet 16 in 2012 and 2010. UW-Parkside has advanced past the first round every time except for an opening round exit in 2003. The Rangers are 7-7-1 all-time in NCAA games.
 
Home Sweet Home: The Rangers have been nearly invincible at home in recent years, post­ing a 41-1-7 record over the last 49 games at Wood Road Field. The lone loss in that stretch was a 3-2 defeat to Rockhurst on Oct. 28, 2012 in the GLVC Tournament. UW-Parkside hasn't lost a regular season home game since falling 1-0 to Saginaw Valley State University in the 2010 season opener on Sept. 2 and hasn't dropped a regular season GLVC contest at Wood Road Field since suffering a 1-0 setback to the University of Indianapolis on October 2, 2009.
 
GLVC Defender of the Week: UW-Parkside has been a consistent fixture of the GLVC weekly awards, claiming Defender of the Week accolades on five occasions, including three straight weeks. Niekie Pellens grabbed her second Player of the Week honor on Oct. 27 while Emily Konior became a two-time honoree on Oct. 20, securing the honor after netting a pair of game-winners. Konior additionally won the award on Sept. 22. Karley Mecko was the GLVC honoree on Sept. 8 while Niekie Pellens won the honor on Oct. 13.
 
Konior was additionally named the NSCAA Disney Soccer Player of the Week on Sept. 23. She became the second women's soccer player to land the honor since the award was created at the start of the 2013 season. Goalie Mallory Geurts won National Player of the Week on Oct. 8, 2013.
 
RangerNation: The 2014 UW-Parkside women's soccer roster features 27 student-athletes from eight different states and one foreign country. The Rangers hail from Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, California, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Florida and the Netherlands.