Soccer Preview: Blue Devils host Blugolds Wednesday, Oshkosh Saturday

Live Stats

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (6-1-2, 2-0-0 WIAC) will concentrate solely on league games this week when they host UW-Eau Claire, (2-4-2,1-0-0 WIAC) Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. and UW-Oshkosh, (6-2-0, 1-0-0 WIAC) Saturday, Oct. 3 at 1 p.m.

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

BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT:  Stout defeated St. Mary's, 2-0, Sept. 23, in a driving rain storm, then downed UW-Platteville, 3-1, on a beautiful fall afternoon, Sept. 26.  | St. Mary's Complete Story and Stats | UW-Platteville Complete Story and Stats

A LOOK AT UW-STOUT: The Blue Devils have posted five shutouts this season over ninegames, allowing only one goal in three other games. Stout's only loss came in a 3-2 overtime decision to Viterbo University, Sept. 26. Paige Meyer has played all of the minutes between the pipes and is posting a 0.62 goals against average. Jenna Kizlik, Addy Maher and Sydney Kasper have all scored three goals, with Kizlik and Maher each recording an assist. Kasper has one assist.  Megan Collins, Sarah Todey and Kelly Conn each have two goals, with Conn and Collins each recording an assist. Collins has scored all of her points since moving up to the midfield. Lindsey Concon has come off the bench to added two assists and defender Haley Wentz has two assists, the first of her collegiate career. Camille Fawcett also has an assist. The Blue Devils have won their last four games, and have won six of their last seven outings. The Blue Devils have scored 15 total goals so far this season after nine games, four short of the total 19 they scored in all of last year. Defensively, the Blue Devils have allowed only six goals. | 2015 Stats

ON THE RIGHT PAIGE: When UW-Platteville scored in the 78th minute of UW-Stout's 3-1 win at UW-Platteville, the goal stopped the longest scoreless streak in Blue Devil goalkeeper Paige Meyer's collegiate career. After allowing a goal in double overtime to Viterbo University, Sept. 16, Meyer did not allow a goal for 358 minutes, four games later at Platteville. So far this season, Meyer has five shutouts. Charla Buxbaum (2005) and Melissa Ballweg (2002) share the season record for most shutouts with eight. Ballweg (2001-04) holds the career shutout record with 21. Meyer currently has 13 career shutouts, second on the all-time list. The teams from 2003, 2004 and 2005 produced 10 shutouts each season.

GOOD START: The 2015 Blue Devils have won six of their first nine games and are off to their best start since the 2011 season when the Blue Devils started off 7-1-1. The 2011 Blue Devils went 11-1-1 before finishing the season at 11-5-1, the third most wins in school history.

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 UW-EAU CLAIRE:  The Blugolds have spread the scoring around, with eight players scoring their nine goals,   Samantha Matuszak has two goals and an assist. Shuoa Khang has a goal and three assists. Four Blugolds have one goal and one assist. Sammie Lafaive has the majority of the minutes between the pipes, and has a GAA of 0.92.   | 2015 Stats

EAU CLAIRE THE LAST TIME OUT: The Blugolds handed 14th ranked Augsburg College their first loss of the season, a 2-0 decision at Bollinger Field, Sept. 26. Shoua Khang scored in the 84th minute - only the second goal of the season allowed by Augsburg - and Margaret Sipe added an insurance goal in the 86th minute. Sammie Lafaive had seven saves for the Blugolds.  | Story and Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND EAU CLAIRE MET:  Eau Claire won both games by identical 1-0 scores, but the second time they met was in the WIAC Tournament and the Blugolds put an end to the Blue Devils' season. Sami Matuzek scored in the 30th minute of the tournament game, and Caroline Henderson scored in the 34th minute of the regular season game.  | Game One Story and Stats | Game Two Story and Stats

A LOOK AT UW-OSHKOSH:  The Titans have outscored their opponents by a 20-8 margin. Alex Kleis has scored five goals, Robyn Elliott four goals, Allysa Arnold three goals and Kendra Jepson has two goals. Rylee Engelland and Megan Paulick each have three assists. Nina Musi has a GAA of 1.23.  | 2015 Stats

OSHKOSH THE LAST TIME OUT: The Titans are coming off a successful California trip where they defeated UC-Santa Cruz, 2-1, and Mills College, 4-0. Against Mills, four different players tallied goals for UW-Oshkosh, including Alek Kleis who scored directly from a corner kick in the 27th minute (26:08) to put the Titans ahead, 1-0. Kleis recorded her team-leading sixth goal of the season on her only shot of the contest. Alyssa Arnold and Robyn Elliott scored within 69 seconds of each other midway through the second half to help the UW-Oshkosh women's soccer team defeat the University of California-Santa Cruz on Saturday (Sept. 26) in Santa Cruz, Calif. | Santa Cruz Story and Stats | Mills Story and Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND UW-OSHKOSH MET: The Titans captured a 1-0 win, Sept. 27, 2014, in Oshkosh, despite the Blue Devils outshooting the Titans. Felicia Retrum scored down the center of the field from about 10 yards out. | Game Story and 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 (36-35-10) 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). The Blue Devils went 4-0-1 against all of the saints combined

DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils will be at Hamline University, Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 4 p.m., then will be at UW-La Crosse, Saturday, Oct. 10 for a 5 p.m. tilt. The Blue Devils have only two more home games.