OXFORD, Ohio – With three road tilts under its belt, the Miami soccer team comes home for its first and only two non-conference home matches this weekend.
The RedHawks (0-2-1) play host to Missouri Valley Conference foes Illinois State and Evansville on Friday (4 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) respectively.
Miami is coming off a 1-1 tie at Western Kentucky, a performance that saw senior goalkeeper
Patricia Koutoulas stop eight of nine shots in net while freshman
Lyda Bogdanovitch netted her first collegiate goal to force the tie. The RedHawks have been tied or within one goal in a contest for 220:40 of the 290 minutes of soccer they have played through three matches.
Illinois State has a 1-1-2 record thus far and is returning from a trip that saw it drop a 7-1 decision at Oklahoma before tying Tulsa on Sunday. Angel Krell has netted two of ISU's five goals and also leads the team with five points. Haley Smith has started all four of the Redbirds' matches in goal and has a 1.77 goals against average with a .767 save percentage.
Evansville is off to a 1-2 start to the season and has dropped its last two contests, including a 4-1 setback at home against Western Kentucky last week. Sunday's tilt will be the Purple Aces' third of the week as they head to UT Martin on Wednesday and host Tennessee Tech on Friday. Jayme-Lee Hunter leads UE with two of the team's three goals and Michaela Till (2.00 goals against average; .762 save percentage) has started all three contests in goal.
Live stats will be available for each contest this weekend with a full recap posted on MiamiRedHawks.com following both matches.
Free Kicks
All-Time Series: Miami is 1-2 all-time against Illinois State, dropping a 1-0 decision to the Redbirds last season, and holds a 2-4 all-time record against Evansville while also falling 1-0 to the Purple Aces in 2017.
Slow Starts: The RedHawks hope to get out of the gates a little faster as it has allowed the first goal in all three contests. Miami has fought back to answer an opening score in two of those outings, but has been outscored 5-1 overall in the first half (1-1 after) in the early going this season.
Needing Possession: While tough competition on opening weekend has skewed the numbers a bit, Miami is looking to improve its ability to control the ball and turn that possession into scoring opportunities. Through three matches, MU has been outshot 56-13 and has yet to attempt more than seven shots in any contest.
Search for Scoring: Offense has been hard to come by for the Red & White the last few seasons and last year saw them score just nine goals in their 18 contests, six fewer than their previous low mark for a season. A good amount of the freshmen were brought in to address the team's attack as it looks to reverse a trend of being unable to find the net.
Miami scoring by season (per match; record)
2012: 60 (2.50; 20-3-1)
2013: 36 (1.71; 11-6-4)
2014: 31 (1.63; 14-3-2)
2015: 21 (1.00; 11-8-2)
2016: 15 (0.79; 8-9-2)
2017: 9 (0.50; 2-15-1)
2018: 2 (0.67; 0-2-1)
