UE men’s soccer finishes 2024 regular season at home

The Purple Aces saw their five game unbeaten streak come to an end last week in their final Missouri Valley Conference trip to Springfield. UE struggled in the second half against the No. 17 Missouri State Bears on their turf giving up five goals in 45 minutes. Evansville did take the initial lead against the Bears within the first 10 minutes of the match. Redshirt freshman midfielder Jacopo Fedrizzi (Giulia, Italy) added his fourth goal of the season and third in four matches at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium. Fedrizzi found his way to the six and shot the ball past Missouri State’s goalkeeper into the middle of the net.

The Aces welcome the Belmont Bruins to the River City for the final regular season match of 2024. Belmont comes to Arad McCutchan Stadium with a 5-8-3 overall record and a 1-5-1 Valley record. The Bruins picked up their lone conference win two weeks ago in Chicago against the Flames with a 1-0 victory. Belmont is led by senior midfielder AJ Chastonay with 12 points from five goals and two assists. In net the Bruins graduate goalkeeper Grant Calvert has allowed only 18 goals in 16 games with 43 saves and five shutouts.

The Aces now have six multi-goal scorers as they head into their final match of the regular season. Senior forward Nacho Diaz Barragan (Almeria, Spain) continues to lead the way with six goals while Fedrizzi and graduate forward Sami Owusu (Denver / Dayton) have four goals apiece. In total UE has 10 separate goal scorers.

Evansville heads into Friday’s match with a postseason spot secured in the MVC Tournament. The Aces will look to host one of the two quarterfinal matches with a win over Belmont. Results across the Valley on Wednesday will determine UE’s seeding with the potential to be as high as third and as low as five.