Senior Jamie Perry has built quite a reputation for herself in
three years at Saint Louis University. The Billiken soccer standout
now faces the challenges of matching her SLU legacy and the team’s
run at an NCAA tournament berth in her final year. Expectations for
both Perry and the team are already high, as she was the only SLU
player to earn pre-season All-Conference honors, with SLU at second
in the Conference USA pre-season coaches’ poll.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Perry said. “I’ve been
All-Conference in each of the last two years, and I hope I can
achieve it again.”

Perry has gone about earning those accolades in a noticeable
manner, as she holds five school records after just three years.
She kept on course in 2003, matching her school record of 29
single-season points. Perry also holds SLU records for career
shots, goals and points, game winning assists and goals in a
season. She tallied 10 goals last year and paced both the Bills and
C-USA with a career-high nine assists along with setting up five
game winners.

“I never really know my stats during the season. I just go out
and play and try to help my team. It’s my senior year and last
chance at an NCAA bid. That’s really my only goal,” Perry said.

SLU takes up the number two ranking behind 2003 regular season
champion University of Alabama-Birmingham, who was picked to repeat
their title. The Bills will play at UAB on October 15.

“I think second is perfect for us,” Perry said of the ranking.
“Our recruiting class is pretty good, and we have a lot of the core
of the team left. We have a lot of talent and a lot of speed.”

After finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place in C-USA
regular season play, SLU narrowly missed a tournament championship
last year. DePaul took the championship game and the conference’s
automatic bid in a shootout victory over the Bills after the teams
played to a 1-1 tie.

“We need to stay focused this year. We have to work as a team
and no one can play for themselves. We got unlucky losing on
penalty kicks to DePaul last year. We’re hosting the conference
tournament this year, so we should get a boost from the home
crowd,” Perry said.

The Bills play a tune-up match when they host Lindenwood on
Friday in the team’s only exhibition game before heading out on the
road for the first four games of the non-conference schedule. SLU
has a difficult road schedule ahead, with stops at UAB, Kansas and
Illinois. Perry is optimistic about the road challenges.

“I’m pretty confident,” Perry said. “We usually do well against
Lindenwood; we did in the spring. I’m really excited to play a game
and to see how we look. We’ll have a freshman playing sweeper and
one competing for playing time at forward. We may be playing a
4-4-2, and I’ll be playing more of a center midfield role.”

“It’s good to start out hard,” Perry said of the road
challenges. “It’s really good; we’ll be ready for our conference
games.”