Soccer season in St. Louis seems to present itself with a surrounding buzz of excitement each year. Whether it be at the school age, college or professional level, fans have consistently proven why St. Louis is considered a true “soccer city.” Billiken soccer fans undoubtedly hold true to this notion.
The Saint Louis University (SLU) women’s soccer team finished last season ranked 22nd in the NCAA after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) Championship tournament and advancing to the NCAA Championship tournament. The excitement of last year’s postseason left fans wanting to experience more this upcoming year. The Billikens’ performance in the two preseason exhibition games indicated that they were eager to deliver.
The Billikens earned shutouts in both of their exhibition games, with a score of 5-0 over Southeast Missouri State and a score of 4-0 over Evansville. This trend continued into the first game of the season, which was on the road versus Kansas City. The women’s team walked away with another shutout win, ending the game with a final score of 4-0.
After a tough loss to Penn State in University Park, the Billikens returned to Hermann Stadium for their home opener, where they came out on top with a score of 1-0 against Missouri.
SLU soccer fans, clearly anxious to witness the home opener, showed up in mass numbers. The stadium was filled with 4,097 fans, the third highest attendance to date for a women’s soccer game at Hermann.
Senior forward Rylee Howard was the lone scorer of the game, finding the back of the net early in the first half. The Billiken defense was then able to hold off the Tigers for the remainder of the game.
“I was happy with some pieces of the first half. I think the second half, we need to be able to put a team away. We just let them hang around too long, but we’re young. We’re still learning how to win, we’re learning how to take care of end-of-game situations,” Katie Shields, head coach of the SLU women’s soccer team, stated in a post-game interview.
The next matchup for the Billikens came just four days later versus Indiana, where the Billikens had home-field advantage once again. Through another 1-0 victory, the team showed that they were able to deliver on exactly what Coach Shields had said she was looking for: taking care of end-of-game situations.
With about 12 minutes left in the game, sophomore forward Audrey Smith scored the only goal of the game off an assist from freshman midfielder/forward Caroline Chier.
Since earning these two big wins in a row at home, the Billikens have added two more wins, one loss and one tie to their record. After being shut out at Iowa with a final score of 0-3, the team rallied to outplay Missouri State and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE), improving their record to 5-2. The team then tallied a tie vs. Illinois State, concluding the game with no score and moving their record.
The combination of passionate fans and a fiery team has made for exciting gameplay early in the season, with surely more to come before the highly anticipated A-10 Conference Championship tournament. With about seven weeks remaining of regular season gameplay, fans have 11 more games to watch before cheering on their Billikens in pursuit of an eighth consecutive A-10 Tournament title.
The SLU women will host Davidson at home on Sept. 21 before traveling to VCU for the following game on Sept. 25.