THIS WEEK: Minot State travels to nationally ranked Minnesota State Saturday in a showdown of undefeated teams in NSIC play and then travels to Concordia-St. Paul Sunday.

RECORDS: Minot State (9-1, 7-0) won two home games last week against Winona State and Upper Iowa. Minnesota State (9-1, 7-0) won games against Minnesota Crookston and Minnesota State Moorhead. Concordia, St. Paul (5-5, 4-3) won both of its games against Crookston and Moorhead as well.

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. Brian Bahl is in his third season with Minnesota State. In his first two years Bahl has found success posting a 39-4-2 record and winning NSCAA Central Region Coach of the Year twice. In the two season he has coached the Mavericks they have made appearances in the NCAA tournament. In 2014 Bahl coached his team to a 22-1 record and an appearance in the Sweet 16. Familiar with the NSIC Bahl was the head coach of the Upper Iowa women's soccer team for six years before joining Minnesota State. Steve Bellis was named the head coach at Concordia University in early 2011 after five seasons serving at the helm at St. Catherine University. With a 25-43-3 record in his first four seasons with the Golden Bears Bellis has led his team to 21 conference victories. Before gaining head coaching duties Bellis was an assistant at Macalester College and helped lead the team to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division III National Championship game, winning the 1998 National Championship.

RANKINGS: Minnesota State is ranked as the No. 6 team in the country by the October 6 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division II poll moving up four spots from No. 10 last week. The Beavers and Golden Bears are both unranked. Minot State received votes last week in the poll gathering 10 points from the voters.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State remained undefeated in conference play last week with two wins over Winona State and Upper Iowa. It was the first win over Upper Iowa in school history as the Beavers begin their most successful season through 10 games since the program began. Minot State got through another weekend as the only team in the NSIC to allow less than 30 shots on goal. The next closest teams are Augustana and St. Cloud State who have allowed 45.  

NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State is the most dominant team both offensively and defensively on paper in the Northern Sun. Leading the conference in goals scored with 38 and goals allowed with four the 34 goal difference is the largest in the NSIC. In comparison the next closest teams are Augustana and Minot State with a goal differential of 14. The Mavericks have shutout seven of their 10 opponents.

NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia, St. Paul is another good offensive NSIC team ranking fourth in goals with 17. With 16 goals allowed the Golden Bears have struggled to keep the ball out of their net throughout the year. With 91 fouls on the year Concordia has played a tough game only trailing Minot State in fouls in the conference, but both teams have seven yellow cards.

SERIES HISTORY: The Beavers have yet to win a game against Minnesota State with a 0-4-1 record against the Mavericks. Minot State is undefeated against Concordia, St. Paul with a 3-0 record.  

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.

THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE: The defensive unit for Minot State only allowed two shots on goal in two games last weekend, not allowing any shots on goal against Winona State. Defensive players Breanne Hatfield (Sr., Manteca, Calif.) and Emilie Rebelo (Sr., Sacramento, Calif.) both had assists last week. Hatfield had an assist against Winona State while Rebelo assisted a goal against Upper Iowa. Hatfield won the NSIC Defensive Player of the Week for her play over the weekend.

LEADING THE CONFERENCE: With three goals last week Ninfa Ramirez (F, Jr., Perris, Calif.) moved up to tie for the most goals scored this season with nine. The two other players to have scored nine goals are Minnesota State's Korey Kronforst and Kiana Nickel. With the matchup between Minot State and Minnesota State the three highest scorers in the league will all be on the pitch Saturday.

NO WAFFLING: Freshman Rimke Eurlings (M, Lanaken, Belgium) did not waste any time scoring her first collegiate goal. In her first appearance this season against Winona State Eurlings scored a goal with less than five minutes left in the game. With 12 minutes played in her first game against WSU Eurlings also saw time in the next game against Upper Iowa with 11 minutes played.

BY THE NUMBERS

4: Assists from Chloe Melton (F, Jr., Fleet, England) so far this season. Melton is tied for the second most assists in the conference this season. Melton also has two goals this year.

7: Games in a row that Minot State has been able to win. Since falling 1-0 against Central Missouri the Beavers haven't suffered a loss.

14.4: Shots per game taken by Minot State. That number is double the amount of shots per game taken by the Beavers opponents which sits at 7.2.