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

SOMERS, Wis. (Oct. 15, 2015)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's and women's soccer teams gear up for its longest bus ride of the season, heading to southern Missouri to face Great Lakes Valley Conference foes Drury University and Missouri University S&T.
 
The Ranger women face Drury on Friday evening at 5 p.m. with the men following at 7:30 p.m. The road swing closes on Sunday with the women playing Missouri S&T at noon with the men taking the field at 2:30 p.m. Live stats will be available for all four games while video streaming will be available for the Drury games only.
 
About the UW-Parkside women's soccer team: The Rangers (4-7-1, 3-6-1 GLVC) earned a home split last weekend at Wood Road Field, suffering a 1-0 setback to then No. 14 Bellarmine University on Oct. 9 before crushing the University of Southern Indiana 4-1 on Sunday.
 
Against the national-ranked Knights, the Rangers' fell victim to a 75th minute goal by Jordan Chlebowy in what proved to be the lone score of the contest. Both teams finished the game with eight shots on target, with visiting Bellarmine enjoying a slim 13-12 edge in total shots.
 
Two days later Jillian Hetfleisch tallied her second career hat-trick, helping the Rangers cruise to the 4-1 win over USI. Hetfleisch needed just 97 seconds to tally her first score before tacking on goal number two in the 22nd minute. Lauren Bialas struck from 30-yards out in the 23rd minute as host UW-Parkside enjoyed a 3-0 lead at the halftime intermission.
 
The Screaming Eagles whittled the deficit with a goal in the 48th minute before Hetfleisch completed the hat-trick in the 60th minute off an assist from Vianey Hernandez, her second helper of the contest.
 
Hetfleisch leads the Rangers in points (13) and assists (three) and is tied with Hernandez for the team lead in goals with five. Bialas has found the back of the net on three occasions while Taylor Schiffer-Jander and Lexi Porter each have a pair of assists in 2015.
 
Sarah Dobrowolski has logged all but 32 minutes in goal for the Rangers, boasting a 1.26 goals against average with four shutouts and 44 saves.
 
About the Panthers: Drury (6-2-4, 5-2-3 GLVC) is unbeaten in its last three outings, claiming a 2-1 win over Quincy University on Oct. 3 while salvaging double overtime draws against Maryville University (1-1) on Oct. 4 and Truman State University (0-0) on Oct. 11.
 
Against Quincy, Drury tallied two scores in the final 10 minutes to escape with the win. QU opened the scoring by converting a penalty kick in the 50th minute before Ciara O'Brien equalized the score in the 81st minute on a free kick. The game winner was provided a less than three minutes later with Mariah Gove scoring off a rebounded shot.
 
Two days later, neither the Panthers nor the visiting Bulldogs could find the back of the net after 110 minutes of play, settling for a 0-0 draw. DU held a slim 9-8 edge in shots in the contest, including a 3-2 advantage in shots on goal.
 
The Panthers have been a tough squad to face in Springfield, Missouri, owning a 15-0-5 record at Harrison Stadium over the past 20 games, a stretch spanning back to the 2013 season.
 
Kerri Morris is Drury's leader in both goals (six) and points (14) while Emily Cline provides four goals and two assists. O'Brien and Rachel Krueger are the only other Panthers with more than one goal while Gove leads the team in assists with three on the 2015 campaign.
 
Tina Haberberger has started all 12 games for the Panthers, posting five shutouts and sporting a goals against average of 0.91. Haberberger has made 50 saves on the season while allowing 11 goals in 1,091 minutes of work.
 
About the Lady Miners: GLVC Tournament Finalists a season ago, Missouri S&T (1-10-1, 0-9-1 GLVC) is still searching for its first win of the conference slate. The Miners enter the weekend having dropped its last four games by a combined 11-2 margin with the last non-loss a 1-1 double overtime draw against visiting McKendree University on Sept. 27.
 
Last weekend, S&T conceded a goal in each half, falling 2-0 to visiting Truman State on Oct. 9 before stumbling 3-1 on Sunday to Quincy. Missouri S&T was outshot by a 2-to-1 margin by Quincy who scored the final two goals of the afternoon to secure the win.
 
Missouri S&T has mustered just five goals all season with two coming off the boot of Julie Bride. Kendall Fitzpatrick is the team's top distributor, earning two assists.
 
Carrie Levy has logged all but seven minutes in net for the Miners, making 68 saves and owning a 1.89 goals against average.
 
GLVC Prognostications: The GLVC announced its annual Coaches' Poll on August 27 with the defending champion UW-Parkside picked to finish fourth in the 16-team league in 2015.
 
The Rangers secured 184 points and four first place votes to snag the No. 4 position. Bellarmine University is the favorite with 219 points and nine first place votes followed by Rockhurst University with 196 points. Truman State University was third with 188 points and three first place votes with Quincy University rounding out the top five with 170 points.
 
Academic Prowess: UW-Parkside was honored by the NSCAA on Sept. 23, earning the College Team Academic Award for excellence in the classroom. The Rangers maintained a 3.18 grade point average during the 2014-2015 academic year, earning the award for the third time in program history and the first time since 2001. To be eligible, teams must maintain a cumulative GPA above 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
 
Individually, 12 Ranger student-athletes earned Academic All-GLVC in the spring, including returners Lauren Bialas, Jenna Brzeski, Taylor Burek, Sarah Dobrowolski, Lexi Porter, Kelly Trojak, and Selena Wicklund. To earn Academic All-GLVC honors, student-athletes must maintain a 3.30 GPA or above.
 
Home Sweet Home: The Rangers have been nearly invincible at home in recent years, posting a 45-7-7 record over the last 59 games at Wood Road Field. UW-Parkside additionally owns a 35-4-5 record against GLVC foes during the regular season over the last 44 league games.
 
16 and Counting: The Rangers have experienced 16 straight winning seasons, a streak spanning all the way back to 1999. The unprecedented run has seen UW-Parkside make seven trips to the NCAA Tournament and win four GLVC Tournament Championships.
 
Five and Counting: UW-Parkside has made the NCAA Tournament the past five seasons and six of the last seven years. The Rangers have qualified for the Big Dance in 2014, 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 2014, 2012 and 2010. UW-Parkside has advanced past the first round every time except for an opening round exit in 2003. The Rangers are 8-8-1 all-time in NCAA games.
 
Nikolic Nuggets: Head Coach Brittany Nikolic enters her first season at UW-Parkside and has a championship pedigree as both a player and a coach. She was a standout at Stanford University, helping the Cardinal to four NCAA Tournament appearances along with a Pac 10 Conference Championship and an NCAA Quarterfinal appearance in 2002.
 
A two-time Honorable Mention All-Pac 10 honoree, Nikolic served as an assistant coach at Northwestern University, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2004-2008. She helped UWM to a Horizon League regular season and tournament title in 2008 and UNLV to a Mountain West Conference Tournament crown in 2006 along with a regular season title for the Rebels in 2007.
 
The Los Angeles, California, native comes to UW-Parkside after a six-year stint as head coach at NCAA Division III Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she inherited a program that collected just 20 wins in the eight years prior to her arrival on campus. Nikolic rewrote the record book at the all-women's college, guiding the Inferno to their best season in program history in 2013 while exiting as the program's all-time winningest coach.
 
About the UW-Parkside men's soccer team: The Rangers (4-6-2, 4-4-2 GLVC) have now participated in six consecutive overtime contests, emerging from the weekend with a victory and a tie. UW-Parkside slipped past Bellarmine 2-1 on Oct. 9 before settling for a 1-1 double overtime draw against Southern Indiana on Sunday.
 
Against Bellarmine, Scott Nicolai emerged as the hero, scoring the game-winner in the ninth minute of sudden-death overtime. Nicolai tallied the goal after collecting a rebound off an Evan Garcia shot that rattled off the crossbar. Garcia opened the scoring with a goal in the seventh minute but the visiting Knights countered with an equalizer in the 80th minute.   
 
On Sunday, visiting USI struck early, scoring in the seventh minute but the Rangers battled back with Ryan Shogren sending the game to extra time with a goal in the 75th minute. Parkside finished the contest with a commanding 16-9 edge in shots, including nine of the 12 taken on goal.
 
Garcia and Shogren lead the team in scoring, both notching five goals on the year while Nicolai adds four goals and a pair of assists. Jaime Colin is the team's top assist-man with three on the season.
 
In goal, Remi Bibal has handled a majority of the action in GLVC play, starting all 10 league games and owning a 1.18 goals against average with 49 saves. Nate Kitchell has appeared in three games for the Rangers, collecting 11 saves.
 
About the Panthers: Drury (6-4-2, 6-2-2 GLVC) heads into Friday riding a three-game win streak while going unbeaten (5-0-2) in its last seven outings. The Panthers win streak began on Oct. 4, edging host Maryville University 1-0 before picking up a 3-2 victory over Quincy on Oct. 9 to open up their four-game homestand. Drury continued its winning ways on Sunday, blanking Truman State 2-0 with late second half goals from Matt Clarkin and Julien Chevy.
 
Ben Bruce is the Panthers' scoring leader, notching five goals on the year in addition to collecting three assists. Clarkin has three goals while Chevy has a team-best four assists.
 
Blake Andrews is DU's primary goalkeeper making 18 saves on the season with a 0.90 goals against average. Andrews' has been the keeper of record for record for three of Drury's four shutouts this season, logging 804 minutes between the posts.
 
GLVC Prognostications: The GLVC announced its annual Coaches' Poll on August 27 with UW-Parkside picked to finish 10th in the 16-team league in 2015.
 
The Rangers collected 92 points in the rankings, two points ahead of 11th place Truman State University and 15 points short of ninth ranked University of Southern Indiana.
 
University of Indianapolis is the preseason favorite with 206 points and six first place votes followed closely by defending regular season and tournament champion Quincy University with 203 points and eight first place votes. Rockhurst University is third with 194 points while Drury University sits fourth with 188 points and the remaining two first place nods.
 
90 Minutes is Not Enough: Seven of UW-Parkside's 10 GLVC games have gone into overtime with the squad experiencing mixed success in the sudden death overtime sessions. The Rangers are 2-3-2 in extra time, including a 2-1 victory against Bellarmine on Oct. 9 and a 1-1 draw against Southern Indiana on Sunday.
 
The Z-File: Jason Zitzke enters his 17th season as a member of the coaching staff and his fifth season as head coach in 2015. During that span, the UW-Parkside graduate and 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee owns a 177-105-28 record, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament and one GLVC Championship (2000).
 
Roster Breakdown: Of the 28 student-athletes on the Ranger roster, 18 hail from Wisconsin while four hail from Minnesota. UW-Parkside has a pair from Illinois along with four international student-athletes from France, Gambia, Germany, and Poland.