Regular season winds down while playoff implications ramp up for BSU soccer

The Bemidji State University soccer team will travel to Moorhead, Minn. Friday to take on Minnesota State University in a 3 p.m. match. The team will play in its final regular season home match against Northern State University at Chet Anderson Stadium 1 p.m. Sunday.

This weekend’s home match will be the six seniors’ final regular season contest at Chet Anderson Stadium.

The Beavers, who are 10-4-1 overall and 9-2-1 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, hope to extend their current two-match win streak with this weekend’s matches, while BSU has not lost a regular-season home match since Oct. 7, 2016, a streak spanning 28 matches over four seasons. The team comes off of two home wins, including a shutout and an overtime win last weekend. The Beavers beat Wayne State college, 3-0, and defeated Augustana University, 2-1, in overtime during the Cheryl Smith/Cancer Awareness match.

With the postseason quickly approaching and already in line to host its first round NSIC Tournament match, BSU hopes to build upon its victory over Augustana and climb out of fourth place in the standings and into position to win its second consecutive NSIC championship and the opportunity to host the entire league tournament. The Beavers currently trail Concordia University. Paul (10-0-2), Augustana (10-1-1) and Minnesota State University, Mankato (10-2-0), which each own 10 conference wins.

In addition to the fanfare that the final regular-season home match brings with it, Sunday’s match up carries extra weight. The Beavers will face Northern State’s head coach, Ryszard Gorski, who served as assistant coach for the Beavers, under Coach Jim Stone from 2016-18, and his assistant coach, Beaver soccer’s alum, Rachael Norton. Norton, a 2019 graduate of Bemidji State, holds BSU records for all-time points (125), goals (49), game-winning goals (15), assists (27), and shots on goal (148).