THIS WEEK: Minot State gets back to the friendly confines of Herb Parker Stadium after four straight conference road games. In fact, the Beavers have played seven of eight contests on the road to start the season. But MSU hasn't been slowed down by the bus trips as the Beavers are 6-1 in road games this season. MSU will play host Winona State and Upper Iowa Saturday and Sunday with each contest scheduled for 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Minot State (7-1, 5-0) won two games on the road last week against Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls. Winona State (6-2, 3-2) split its games last week with a loss against St. Cloud State and a win against Minnesota Duluth. Upper Iowa (3-3-2) also fell to St. Cloud State and won against Minnesota Duluth last week.

COACHES CORNER: Jason Spain is in his sixth season as head coach of the women's soccer program at Minot State. Spain has done impressive work in his four seasons with the team, sporting a highly successful 52-34-11 record. Last season, Spain led the Beavers to their third consecutive birth in the NSIC postseason tournament. In 2012, the Beavers won the NSIC tournament and claimed the automatic bid into the NCAA Division II tournament. Ali Omar is in 21st season with Winona State. With 287 wins in his first 20 season Omar has led his team to 11 NSIC Championships and six NSIC tournament titles. Winona State won eight consecutive conference titles from 2004-11 under his command. The Warriors have gone 168-19-8 (.882) in conference games with six undefeated seasons since Omar has joined the program. Brian Diaz is in his third season as the head coach of the Upper Iowa soccer team. Prior to joining the Peacocks Diaz was an assistant coach at the University of South Alabama for five years. Diaz has coached his team to a 26-12-1 record in his first two season.

RANKINGS: The Beavers, Warriors and Peacocks are all unranked in the September 22 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division II poll. Minot State received votes in the poll gathering 10 points from the voters. Winona State was ranked in the No. 25 slot last week before falling to St. Cloud State.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State's lone loss this year comes at the hands of the current No. 1 team in the country, Central Missouri. The 1-0 victory was the lowest scoring game for the Jennies so far this season and tied for the lowest point differential. In the first game last week against Southwest Minnesota State the Beavers won in exciting fashion in overtime with a nearly perfect pass from Chloe Melton to Andrea Franco who scored the game winning goal. In the second game Minot State won 2-0 against Sioux Falls.

NOTING THE WARRIORS: Winona State has dropped out of the rankings after moving from No. 18 to No. 25 in the past three weeks. With a 6-2 record the Warriors have outscored their opponents 12-5 this season with half of their goals coming from freshman Abby Bohanski. The only games that the Warriors have lost this season have been the two games that Bohanski was kept from scoring.

NOTING THE PEACOCKS: The Peacocks have a record of 2-1-1 at home this season and a record of 1-2-1 on the road. They have played three double overtime games in 2015 tying twice and winning losing 2-1 in their latest game against St. Cloud State. With a tie against current No. 20 Augustana, Upper Iowa is the only conference blemish on the Vikings record.

SERIES HISTORY: The Beavers have an even 2-2 series standing against Winona State and have yet to defeat Upper Iowa with a 0-4 record against the Peacocks.

LAST TIME OUT: In 2014 Minot State traveled to Winona State to fall 1-0 in tough loss with the game winning goal coming with less than two minutes to play from a Winona State free kick. Twice last season Upper Iowa beat Minot State by a single goal including the game that ended the Beavers season in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament.

MAKING SHOTS COUNT: Minot State is tied for eighth in the NSIC in shots taken this season with 106, but ranks third in goals scored with 15. With 60 shots on goal the Beavers are aiming well with a shots on goal percentage of .566. Leading scorer Ninfa Ramirez (F, Jr., Perris, Calif.) has a personal shots on goal percentage of .708.

FLEET OF FOOT: With one goal and two assists in her last three games Chloe Melton (F, Jr., Fleet, England) has increased her playing time immensely in the last few weeks. Averaging 34 minutes in the first five games of the season Melton had only two shots and one assist in her stat box. Over the past three games she has increased her playing time to averaging over 62 minutes per game and adding 7 shots along with her four points.

GOALIE SWAP: Through eight games goal keepers Celene Johnson (Sr., Rocklin, Calif.) and Leila Torres (Jr., Burlingame, Calif.) have split time defending the net. Starting in five games, Johnson has made seven appearances while Torres has started in three games and mad six appearances. The two goalies have combined for three shutouts and a save percentage of .769.

BY THE NUMBERS

11: Assists on 15 goals this season. MSU sits tied for third with two other teams for the most assists so far in 2015.  

26: Shots on goal allowed by the Minot State defense. MSU is the only team in the Northern Sun to allow less than 30 shots on goal at this point in the year.

82: Fouls from Minot State. The next closest conference team in fouls in Minnesota Crookston with 74. The furthest team in foul differential is St. Cloud State with 32.