The nationally 24th-ranked Drury Soccer Panthers will seek to stay unbeaten at home when they entertain Missouri Science & Technology at 2:30 p.m. Sunday to pen the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships post-season tournament.
Coach
Ryan Swan's second-seeded Panthers are 14-3-0 overall entering their second match against the seventh-seed Miners (8-7-2) in five days at Harrison Stadium in the Curry Sports Complex. Drury defeated S&T 1-0 at Harrison/Curry on Wednesday in the regular season finale, needing a
Nick Ammann goal with just over seven minutes remaining to snag the victory.
In other first-round matchups on Sunday, top seed and nationally sixth-ranked Quincy (16-0-2) will host No. 8 seed Bellarmine (8-7-3), third-seed Missouri-St. Louis (12-3-2) will play host to No. 6 Indianapolis (9-5-3) and fourth-seed Lewis (10-4-3) will entertain No. 5 seed (9-5-2).
Sunday's winners will advance to the semifinals (Friday, November 7) and finals (Sunday, November 9) at the highest remaining seed after the opening round, meaning a Quincy loss and a Drury win could bring the final four to Springfield for the first time since 2009, when the Panthers captured their lone league championship in Swan's first season at the helm.
Drury went 1-1 in the league's eight-team, post-season event last year, reaching the semifinals before falling 3-2 to Indianapolis in overtime in Quincy, Ill.
The Panthers are in the GLVC tourney field for the seventh consecutive year, and are 6-4 all-time in GLVC tourney appearances.
Drury outscored its opponents 39-11 during the regular season.
Alec Nagel leads a balanced attack with 10 goals, while
Jack Mathis and Ammann have added eight goals each and
Charles Guelly has scored five times. Mathis has a team-high four assists.
Keeper
Logan Ponche has posed eight shutouts in 17 starts in goal for the Panthers.
S&T has been outscored 21-16 on the season. The Miners are led by Eduardo Abichabki's four goals and five assists.
Drury leads the all-time series with S&T by a 12-5 count.
Sunday's match can be seen in a free, live webcast at www.drurypanthers.com/watch.
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