Saint Louis University’s women’s soccer team will host the Northwestern Wildcats (0-1-1) in the season’s home opener at 1 p.m. this Sunday at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.
The Billikens (0-1-0) hope to build on their effort from last week, a 2-1 loss at Vanderbilt to open the season.
“The first half of that game was not good, but I really feel like we started to play our game and play much better in the second,” head coach Tim Champion said. “I know that we gave up the goals in the second, but I felt that we really dominated the play that half.”
“We were able to get a lot out of that game. We learned about our team. Four freshmen got some significant playing time, as well as a few seniors who had not played in awhile due to injury,” Champion said.
The team is building off their performance in the season-opener’s latter half, and looking forward to the rest of the season.
“We all know that we ended on a positive note, so we are trying to duplicate the things we did right in practice, like moving off of the ball,” senior Susan Frederickson said.
Frederickson scored the Bills’ lone goal in the loss on Saturday.
“The Vanderbilt game was a good test and we will have another one on Sunday with Northwestern. This time we want to be more offensive and really stay as a unit on defense,” Frederickson said.
The team battled Northwestern to a 0-0 draw last year in Evanston, Ill., and hope that the home field advantage will be the difference this time around.
“We’re very excited to be playing at home this weekend. It’s always easier to play in front of the home crowd and the fans,” Frederickson said.
“Northwestern plays a completely different style than Vanderbilt did. They are very direct, very physical. And they really go to the goal. It will definitely be a tough game,” Champion said.
“I scheduled four tough games to start the season for this reason. It’s a good way to figure out where we are at as a team and to prepare us for conference play,” Champion said.
The Bills were picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10 this year, behind Dayton and defending champion Charlotte.
