MATCHUPS: Minot State will visit Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday, Oct. 1 and Sioux Falls on Sunday, Oct. 2. Both games are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

RECORDS: The Beavers continued their hot start in conference play beating both Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State to improve their record to 5-1. The Mustangs lost to Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State over the weekend to move their record to 3-5. The Cougars lost to Minnesota State as well, but were able to win against Concordia-St. Paul making their record 2-5-1.

COACHES CORNER: Jason Spain is in his seventh season as head coach of the women's soccer program at Minot State. Spain has done impressive work in his five seasons with the team, sporting a highly successful 68-39-12 record. Last season, Spain led the Beavers to their fourth-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. In 2015, Spain took his team to its second NCAA Division II tournament appearance and coached his team to the first NCAA postseason win in MSU's Division II history. He also coached the Beavers to Minot State's first ever top 25 appearance since joining the Division II level in 2015. Erin Kasmarik-Mallett is in her second season coaching for Southwest Minnesota State. Last season she led her team to an 8-9-2 record, qualifying for the NSIC Tournament. Prior to joining the Mustangs, she was a men's high school coach at Brookings High School in South Dakota. In 2010 Kasmarik-Mallett began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at South Dakota State University. Brittany Goosen is also in her second season as the head coach for Sioux Falls. Last season she led the Cougars to a 2-14-1 record. In her four years (2007-11) playing soccer at the University of Nebraska Goosen started in every game. After a graduate assistant coaching job with Emporia State Goosen spent one season as the assistant coach for the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

RANKINGS: Minot State earned its highest ranking in program history, and the highest Division II ranking in school history this week when it was voted the No. 15 team in the country the September 27 NSCAA Coaches poll. Neither of this week's opponents received votes.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: After defeating Bemidji State last weekend, Minot State remains the only NSIC team to be undefeated in conference play. With a 5-1 overall record the Beavers sport a four-game winning streak going into the weekend after losing in overtime to Fort Hays on September 5, a game that was played at the USF Sanford Sports Complex where they will match up against the Cougars this weekend.

NOTING THE MUSTANGS: Southwest Minnesota State has had an interesting start to NSIC play in 2016 as they have won two games in overtime, both resulting in 3-2 finishes. Freshman Jessica Craigmile has played every minute for the Mustangs at goalkeeper this season recording 40 saves and a save percentage of .702. Junior Amanda Hartmann and freshman Alexandra Miskowiec lead SMSU in goals scored with three apiece.

NOTING THE COUGARS: Sioux Falls has already matched its win total from last season with two win coming in conference play. That mark doubles the Cougars conference wins from 2015. While they have scored five goals so far this season they do not have any players with more than one goal and only have one player with more than two points. Freshman Lauren LaFarve has scored a goal and assisted on another to lead the Cougars with three points.

SERIES HISTORY: Minot State has been playing both Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls since 2010. With a 4-2 record against the Mustangs and a 7-1 record against the Cougars the Beavers have been able to come out on top more often than not against these two teams.

LAST TIME OUT: Last season when making the road trip to Marshall, Minn. and Sioux Falls, S.D. the Beavers came out on top in both games winning by a collective score of 4-1. Three of those four goals were scored and assisted on by players still on the team including two goals by Ninfa Ramirez and two assists by Chloe Melton.  

NSIC SCORING SYSTEM: The standings in the NSIC this year have changed from previous seasons. Now, each win awards a team three points, while a tie results in one and a loss does not provide any. The conference has gone away from winning percentage as the lone marker in where teams sit in the standings and now use this points system to determine the winner of the regular season conference title.

CHASING RECORDS: Seniors Ninfa Ramirez and Chloe Melton are currently in the top 10 in career points, goals and assists and will be moving up the ranks this season. Sophomore Ashley Franco is already in the top 10 in assists after just one season with the team. Ramirez also has just one season of experience with Minot State. Junior Maritssa Perez is also in the top 10 for career assists.

FOR KEEPS: After splitting time with Leila Torres in the beginning of the season Erin Rafferty looks to have been given the starting role as goalkeeper for MSU soccer. Starting both games over the past weekend and playing all 187 minutes Rafferty allowed just one goal while recording five saves. With the shutout against Bemidji State she earned her first career shutout as her and Torres split time in the team's two other shutouts.

SENIOR CONNECTION: Senior forwards Chloe Melton and Ninfa Ramirez have scored off of each other's passes six times in their two seasons playing together, including three times this season. Most recently Ramirez scored on a cross from Melton to score the game winning goal in overtime against Bemidji State. Melton has assisted on four of Ramirez's 24 career goals.

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: Ninfa Ramirez, who goes by 'Ninja' has been anything but stealthy this season. After her NSIC debut last season where she was second in total points with 36 every team now knows about the senior forward from California. Despite the attempts to stop her, Ramirez has still managed to score eight goals, half of her season total last year, just six games into the season. Ninja is currently tied for ninth in the NCAA Division II for total goals scored and trails just one other NSIC player.

BY THE NUMBERS

.840: Save percentage earned by two goalies this season. If the Beavers keep this pace it will be just the fourth time MSU has recorded a season save percentage over .800.

4: Goals allowed by the Beavers through six games. This ranks Minot State as the No. 1 defense in the NSIC in both total goals allowed and goals allowed per game (0.67).

8: Assists recorded by Minot State so far this season. Five different players have each recorded one assist each while Chloe Melton has assisted three goals.