Soccer Preview: Stout hosts St. Mary's Wednesday, then off to Platteville

Live Stats

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (4-1-2, 1-0-0 WIAC) will conclude their four-game homestand when they host St. Mary's University, (2-4-0, 0-2-0 MIAC) Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m., then return to conference play when they travel to UW-Platteville, (1-5-0, 0-1-0 WIAC) Saturday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m.

ON-LINE: All Blue Devil home soccer games will be available by Live Stats, network providing.

BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT:  Sarah Todey hit the game winner just over one minute in the second overtime, taking the throw-in from Addy Maher and launching the 25 yard shot over the leaping goalkeeper to take a 1-0 win over St. Scholastica Sept. 20.  |  WEAU Video  | Jenna Kizlik scored a goal and an assist and Megan Collins scored a goal as UW-Stout opened the conference season with a 2-0 win over UW-Stevens Point Saturday at Nelson Field. Kizlik took a cross from Haley Wentz  in the 23rd minute to put the Blue Devils on the board. The Blue Devils played a good majority of the first half in the Pointers zone. Collins racked up her second goal of the season since switching to midfield, getting assists from Kizlik and Addy Maher, hitting the bottom right corner of the net.  | St. Scholastica Complete Story and Stats | UW-Stevens Point Complete Story and Stats

A LOOK AT UW-STOUT: The Blue Devils have posted four shutouts the season over seven games, allowing only one goal in two other games. Stout's only loss came in a 3-2 overtime decision to Viterbo University last Wednesday. Paige Meyer has played all of the minutes between the pipes and is posting a 0.65 goals against average. Jenna Kizlik and Addy Maher led the team in scoring with two goals and two assists apiece. Megan Collins, since moving up to the midfield, has added two goals and an assist. Sarah Todey has recorded two goals, both coming in the last week. Freshman Sydney Kasper and junior Kelly Conn have a goal and an assist. Camille Fawcett and Haley Wentz each have an assist. The Blue Devils started the season off with a four game unbeaten streak.  | 2015 Stats

QUICK BLUE DEVIL PREVIEW: After two seasons, the Blue Devils will be without the sister-sister tandem of Lauren Kizlik and Jenna Kizlik. Both were two-time all-WIAC selections and both were among the team leaders in scoring the past two seasons. Lauren, who led Stout in scoring last season as a sophomore, transferred, but will not play soccer at her new school. Jenna returns as a team captain in the midfield after scoring two goals and dishing off three assists last year. Kelly Conn returns on top after a two-goal, four-assist season to lead all returners. With the exception of Lauren Kizlik, the Blue Devils return all of the players who scored goals for them last season, but Lauren Kizlik scored seven of Stout's total 19 goals. The Blue Devils also return all but one player who scored assists, with Conn leading the way with four assists and Jenna Kizlik with three. Defensively, the Blue Devils allowed a maximum of three goals in only two games last season and posted five shutouts. Five games were decided by one goals and three ended in ties. Paige Meyer returns in goal, where she defended the net in 17 games last year, putting up a GAA of 1.15. All-WIAC defender and team captain Vanessa Wrobel will anchor the back line. As a team, Stout is averaged 1.06 goals per game and gave up 1.17 goals per game. The Blue Devils were picked to finish sixth in a WIAC preseason poll.

A LOOK AT ST. MARY'S UNIVERSITY:  The Cardinals are trying to find their offense, and have scored only six goals so far this season, with four goals coming in a 4-0 win over UW-Superior on Sept. 5. Emma Schaefer has three goals, Janis Martinez has two goals and Becca Dup has the other goal. Emily Loof, who last year scored 12 goals and tallied 26 points, the most for a Cardinal since the 2010 season, has been kept off the scoreboard so far this year, although she does have a team-high two assists. Aubrie Cornell has played all of the minutes in the net, posting a goals against average of 2.00. Cornell is averaging just over six saves per outing. | 2015 Stats

ST. MARY'S THE LAST TIME OUT: The Cardinals were shut out by St. Benedict, 5-0, Saturday. The Blazers scored a pair of goals around the 23rd minute, added another in the 31st minute, then added two more goals around the 62nd minute.  Aubrie Cornell had four saves for the Cardinals. | Story and Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND ST. MARY'S MET:  The Blue Devils hold a 5-2 lead in the series, including a 2-0 win last season in Winona, Minn. Lauren Kizlik scored a pair of goals and Jenna Kizlik assisted on the first half goal and Lauren scored unassisted on the second half goal. The Blue Devil defense kept the Cardinals off the attack as Blue Devil goalkeeper Paige Meyer recorded two saves. | Story and Stats

A LOOK AT UW-PLATTEVILLE:  Yamilex Jaramillo leads the Pioneers with seven goals and is second in the conference behind UW-Whitewater's Brianna Reed, who has nine. Four other Pioneers have each added a goal. Amanda Taylor and Katie Rash have both worked the goal, with Taylor recording 360:00 minutes and Rash 180:00 minutes. Both have a GAA of 2.50. The Pioneers are at Luther College Wednesday, Sept. 23 before hosting the Blue Devils Saturday. Platteville is coming off a 3-1 loss at UW-Oshkosh Sept. 19.  | 2015 Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND UW-PLATTEVILLE MET: The Blue Devils snapped a five game winless streak with a 2-1 win over the Pioneers at Nelson Field last seson. The Pioneers scored first, but Jenna Kizlik knotted the score in the 18th minute off a corner kick by Kelly Conn. Conn scored early in the second half for the final score of the game. | Game Stats

AWARDS: Sarah Todey was the UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual athlete of the week after a two goal week, including the game winner in double overtime against St. Scholastica...Nikky Sedivy earned WIAC defensive player of the week honors after the opening week of the season as Stout allowed only one goal in two overtime ties...Addy Maher was the Blue Devils offensive player of the week and Nikki Sedivy was the defensive player of the week after the first week of the season...2014: Jenna Kizlik and Vanessa Wrobel were all-WIAC selections, Kizlik for the second consecutive season...Paige Meyer was the WIAC defensive player of the week Oct. 21 after holding nationally ranked UW-Whitewater to one goal in double overtime.

TEAM CAPTAINS: Blue Devil team captains for the 2015 season are Sarah Ulrich, Vanessa Wrobel and Jenna Kizlik.

UW-STOUT COACH RYAN RAUFUS: Coach Ryan Raufus (34-35-10) is in his fifth year as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Raufus played his college ball at Springfield College in Massachusetts and came to Stout after coaching at La Crosse Logan High School and La Crescent, Minn., High School.

QUICK HITS: The Blue Devils posted five shutouts last year, but were kept off the scoreboard 11 times. Stout had two offensive breakouts, a 6-0 conference win over UW-Superior and a 6-2 non-conference win over Gustavus Adolphus. The Blue Devils were in the middle of the conference pack in just about every offensive and defensive statistical category.

TWENTY YEARS OF BLUE DEVIL SOCCER: After many years as a club sport, UW-Stout became the ninth WIAC team to join the varsity ranks during the 1995 season. The Blue Devils took their lumps to open the season, making their premiere by hosting Augsburg College, Sept. 10, in a 7-0 loss. Stout opened the conference season three days later at Nelson Field, hosting perennial conference powerhouse UW-Stevens Point, dropping a 6-0 decision. The Blue Devils finally broke onto the scoreboard in their third game. While hosting UW-Platteville, Sept. 17, Kari Stapleton scored in the 70th minute on an assist from Jenny Tyson in a 2-1 loss. The Blue Devils would get their first-ever win, a 3-0 decision at Martin Luther College, Sept. 23, collecting goals from Amie Frasier, Tyson and Joann Sognesand. Defender Andrea Schroeder was a second team all-conference selection in 1995, then was selected to the first team in 1996.

Members of that first 1995 team include: April Amys, Beeta Bastani, Tammy Beuch, Carrie Blaska, Jen Chapple, Michelle Coon, Amie Frasier, Aimee Grimm, Jamie Jester, Julie Kremer, Dorian Loberg, Amy Lyons, Kristin Manion, Anglea McDowell, Andrea Schroeder, Joann Sognesand, Kari Stapleton, Jenny Tyson, Alisa Zimmerman. Lisa Petruccelli was the Blue Devils first coach, leading the team from 1995-98, followed by Dave Morris (1999-2005), Meagan Frank (2006-10) and Ryan Raufus (2011-present). | 1995 Statistics

SAINTLY SCHEDULE: The Blue Devils may feel blessed (or not) after going through the early part of their schedule when they play five schools named after saints - College of St. Benedict (Sept. 5), St. Catherine (Sept. 8), St. Thomas (Sept. 12), St. Scholastica (Sept. 20) and St. Mary's (Sept. 23).

DOWN THE ROAD: Stout will host UW-Eau Claire, Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m, then will host UW-Oshkosh, Saturday, Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. The Blue Devils will then have only two more home games.