Four Key Conference Matches On Tap in Men's Soccer

With three weekends left in the Horizon League men's soccer regular season, jostling for one of the six spots in the Horizon League Men's Soccer Tournament is well underway.  Four matches this weekend will go a long way towards determining seeding for the tournament, which starts on Nov. 9.

Wright State (4-8-1, 0-4-1 Horizon) and Cleveland State (6-9-0, 3-3-0 Horizon) kick off the weekend with a 7 p.m. match on Saturday.  The Vikings will be looking to open a bit of breathing room on their pursuers, as Cleveland State is locked in a three-way tie for fourth in the conference with two Horizon League matches remaining.

The Raiders enter the night looking for their first conference win of the year, one that would keep their fledgling hopes of a tournament bid alive.  Wright State needs three wins in their three remaining conference matches and to receive help from the teams in front of them in order to capture a tournament spot.

Valparaiso (7-6-2, 1-4-0 Horizon), coming off its finest offensive performance of the season in a 4-0 win over Western Michigan, meets a resurgent Green Bay (8-4-1, 3-2-0 Horizon) squad that rallied for a 4-3 overtime win at Wisconsin on Wednesday night.  The Phoenix are riding a four-match winning streak and have not been defeated in their last three conference matches, while the Crusaders picked up their first win in nearly three weeks on Wednesday.

The Crusaders need a victory to stay in the hunt for a tournament bid; they sit in a tie for seventh presently, six points behind Green Bay, Milwaukee (5-6-2, 3-3-0 Horizon) and Cleveland State.

UIC (4-9-0, 1-4-0 Horizon) sits tied with Valpo in seventh, and like the Crusaders, needs a win over Milwaukee to stay within striking distance of a tournament bid.  The Flames have dropped two straight after a thrilling 1-0 win over then-#16 Ohio State, while the Panthers went to Rochester, Mich., on Wednesday and knocked off perennial Summit League power Oakland, 2-0.

On Sunday, unbeaten Butler (12-0-1, 5-0-0 Horizon) looks to keep its unblemished conference mark in tact when they host Loyola (3-7-2, 3-1-1 Horizon), who sits in third place in the conference standings with 10 points.  The #7 Bulldogs are coming off their first non-win of the season, as they could not dent the back of the net in a 0-0 tie with IUPUI.

Having already clinched a Horizon League Tournament bid, the Bulldogs can put themselves in the driver's seat for the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage with a victory over the Crusaders; a win would put Butler ahead of its nearest pursuers by six points with two matches remaining, while Loyola would creep within two points with a victory at the Butler Bowl.