SAN ANGELO – The No. 4-ranked Angelo State women's soccer team will host Midwestern State at the ASU Soccer Field on Friday night at 7 p.m.
"I think we match up well with them," ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said of MSU. "They play good soccer and I think it'll be a close contest for us."
In the first regional rankings released, ASU came in sitting at No. 1 in the South Central Regional rankings.
The Belles sport a 12-1-1 overall record and a 6-1 Lone Star Conference mark. ASU is riding a six-game winning streak in which they have outscored opponents 10-0. The Belles have not given up a goal in nearly a month, with the last one coming in a 1-0 loss to Texas A&M-Commerce on Sept. 25. MSU is 7-3-3 overall and 3-2-2 in LSC action. The 12-1-1 start in the best in school history.
The Belles have also tied the school record for most consecutive wins in a season (6). ASU is also well on pace to break the single-season record for fewest goals allowed, the current school record is 14 and the Belles have allowed just six.
The match with MSU has playoff implications as the Belles lead the LSC in points with 18; MSU and TAMUC sit in a second place tie trailing ASU with 11 points apiece with three conference matches remaining.
With a win Friday night, the Belles would be one step closer to clinching the regular season LSC conference title and be in line to host the conference tournament. With two wins in the final three matches, the Belles would clinch the regular season title outright.
MSU and the Belles met once earlier this season, a match in which ASU won 2-0 on two goals from Demi Tsambasis. Dating back to 2011, the Belles are 4-3-2 against MSU and have outscored the Mustangs 9-7. All time, ASU is 9-13-7 against MSU.
As a team, the Belles top the LSC in goals (31), fewest goals against (6), shots (220), points (86) and assists (24). Sierra Anderson continues to rank in the top five in the LSC in shots (54), shots per game (3.86), points (19), points per game (1.36), goals (7), goals per game (0.5), assists (5), assists per game (0.357) and game-winning goals (3).
Haley Mendel continues to have a career year with eight goals, which leads the Belles and is good for second in the LSC. She trails TAMUC's Vicky Back by one goal for the lead and has taken 19 less shots. Mendel has also recorded two assists.
"Haley has been the benefactor the same thing many of our players are, and that is the number of good forwards we have," McCorkle said. "It's the multiple options we have that leave teams to decide who to stop, it makes it real difficult."
Seven other Belles not named Anderson or Mendel have scored as well, with Tsambasis (6), Tiffany Dang (3), Selena Alvarez (2) and Payton Shlemon (2) scoring multiple goals. Loni Byers, Kathleen Keoughan and Lauren Perry have also scored a goal this season.
Defensively, ASU has ranked among the nation's best. The Belles are seventh in the country in goals against average at a 0.419 clip. ASU also ranks seventh in the nation in save percentage with a 0.902 mark. In addition, the Belles rank eighth in the NCAA DII in won-lost-tied percentage at 0.893. ASU is 10th in shutout percentage at 0.643.
The Belles have tallied nine shutouts this season, six consecutively in LSC play and are four shy of the school record of 13. With a shutout Friday night the Belles would also tie a single-season school record for most consecutive shutouts.
Shantel Wittke continues to have an outstanding season as well; she is second among all goalkeepers across the country with a 0.926 save percentage. She also ranks fifth in the nation in goals against average with a 0.333 clip. Wittke was also named the SLC Defensive player of the week for her efforts against ENMU and WT.
"I think something has clicked for her in the last four weekends, she's making some really good saves," McCorkle said. "You also hope a goalkeeper makes one or two great saves a game and I think that's where she's at right now and that's her form."
Destinee Williamson leads the MSU attack as she has scored six goals for the Mustangs. Aly Wade has added 41 shots and three goals. Seven players have scored a goal for the Mustangs this season. Defensively for the Mustangs, goalkeeper Courtney Burnette has started all 13 matches for the Mustangs and has tallied 2 saves and allowed 9 goals. Â
