Mustang
SOCCER THURSDAY, SEPT. 16 The road to the 2021 Great Plains Athletic Conference begins on home pitches around the league this week. Morningside University’s Elwood Olsen Stadium is included on the list. Head coach Tom Maxon’s Mustangs men’s and women’s teams welcome Presentation College of South Dakota in a rare Thursday afternoon matinee. Mside’s men, rolling hot of late behind wins over the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ formerly No. 8-ranked Bellevue University program and a resounding decision at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II St. Cloud State, stand 3-1. The women’s team has been just as impressive, with two wins in their first three appearances over William Penn University and Bellevue University. The visiting Saints are coming off a split at Avila College of Missouri last weekend. The men’s team, coached by Terrence Kampa, stopped a three-match skid with a 3-0 decision. The women, falling to 1-3-1, were subdued by a late Avila rally in a 3-2 loss.
THE SERIES Behind a recent 3-0-1 stretch, Morningside’s women are 6-2-1 all-time against PC. Maxon’s men’s program has won eight in a row over their guests from Aberdeen and harbors an 8-2 all-time advantage.
THE MATCH-UP Freshman forward Nathalie Larsson has proven to be quite a find for the Mustangs. She has the team lead in goals (two), points (four), total shots (10), shots on goal (five), and has one of the team’s two game-winning scores. She’s not the only first-year student-athlete flexing her muscles, though, as the offensive newcomer trio of Ellie Gengler, Antonia Janssen, and Julie Raffel have also posted scores, and Janssen has added her name to the game-winning strike list. Morningside’s men’s offense has been one of the conference’s best through four matches. They have an average of just shy of two goals per outing. A quartet has headlined the juggernaut. Senior midfielder Moritz Lusch and junior forward Robin Thomala have produced three goals each, and fellow senior midfielder Noah Aniser and sophomore forward Johannes Lang have scored two apiece. Those types of numbers have allowed junior goalkeeper Bjarne Huth to be aggressive in net, sporting a 1.62 goals-against average with one shutout and 22 saves. Presentation’s women, coached by John Mclean, were lifted by senior forward Amy Turner at Avila. She scored both of their
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