October 3, 2007

Only a handful of unbeaten teams remain in conference play. The Principia College men's and women's soccer squads remained undefeated in the SLIAC with big wins over Maryville University last weekend. The Panthers' women's squad also defeated Fontbonne University earlier this week, leaving them only four wins away from a perfect season in the conference. Jennai Taylor recorded the game-winning goal versus Maryville and continues to lead the conference in goals per game (1.62). She also leads the conference in assists per game (1.25) and points per game (4.50).

In other women's soccer action Fontbonne, Westminster College (Mo.) and Greenville College are in a tight race to remain in the upper half of the conference standings. Greenville had the weekend off from conference play, but both Fontbonne and Westminster picked up wins to stay in the hunt for the conference tournament. Maryville and Greenville face an important SLIAC matchup on Saturday, October 6, while Fontbonne will take on Webster University, who suffered their first conference loss to Maryville earlier this week.

In addition to Principia's men's soccer squad standing undefeated in conference play, Fontbonne is also undefeated at 4-0. The two teams were scheduled to face each other earlier this week, but weather conditions forced the game to be cancelled. The Griffins are scheduled to take on Webster this Saturday on the road.

Webster, Westminster and Maryville all have three wins in the SLIAC and know that one loss could end their hopes of qualifying for the conference tournament. Westminster currently leads NCAA Division III in scoring offense with 5.0 goals per game, while Webster and Greenville are ranked 10th and 17th respectively.

Webster also has the lone undefeated volleyball team in conference play. The Gorloks are 8-0, but face 8-1 Greenville this Saturday. The Panthers have shown consistency this season and recorded an important conference sweep over Maryville. Their lone loss was a 3-2 defeat to Principia College earlier this week.

The SLIAC Cross Country Championships are only four weeks away. Fontbonne's women's squad made a good showing at the Gary Stoner Invitational hosted by Central Methodist University last weekend by placing third out of five teams. The Griffins' Rachel Hanson, a freshman, placed second overall with a time of 20:09, just 19 seconds behind the leader from Central Methodist. The Greenville women's cross country team placed 5th out of 18 teams at the Rhodes College Invitational. The Panthers were competing against NCAA Division I, II and III schools and had two individuals place in the top 25.

On the men's side, Greenville place 7th out of 15 teams at the Rhodes College Invitational. Josh Bond paced the Panthers with a time of 27:06 and a 14th place finish out of 128 runners. Principia College competed at the Warrior Invitational hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran College and placed third overall. Peter Swank and Jeff Strickland led Principia with second and third place finishes respectively, while Justin Sinichko also placed in the top 10 with a time of 29:37.90.

Principia will be hosting their own race this Friday, October 5, while other races scheduled for the weekend include the Millikin Fast Times XC Challenge and the Illinois/Missouri Border Wars.