Gwen Maggard netted a pair of goals on penalty kicks Sunday to lead UMSL women’s soccer team to a 7-0 rout at William Jewell, clinching a share of the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in this week’s GLVC Tournament. (Photo by Luke Rinne/UMSL Athletics)

Women’s Soccer
The University of Missouri–St. Louis women’s soccer team will look to defend last year’s Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament when it kicks off on Sunday, and the Tritons will do so as the No. 1 seed. UMSL won a share of the regular-season conference title after road victories at Truman State and William Jewell over the weekend. They pulled even with McKendree atop the league standings after its draw against Quincy on Sunday and own a tiebreaker with the Bearcats thanks to a 1-0 head-to-head win on Oct. 10. UMSL will play host to No. 8 seed Missouri S&T in a GLVC quarterfinal match on Sunday afternoon. The Tritons head into the postseason riding a six-match winning streak, including a 2-0 victory at Truman State on Friday and a 7-0 rout of William Jewell in Sunday’s regular-season finale. Julie Steiger and Josie Maddox each scored in the first 18 minutes against the Bulldogs, and UMSL remained in control throughout, outshooting Truman State 20-4 in Friday’s match, including a 10-2 edge in shots on goal. Rylee Griffith made two saves while recording her eighth shutout of the season. The Tritons were even more dominant against the Cardinals on Sunday. Gwen Maggard scored on penalty kicks in the 11th and 33rd minute, and Avery Hesseldenz added another goal in the 36th minute as UMSL opened up a 3-0 lead at intermission. Natalie Scott, Hesseldenz, Olivia Lautz and Danni Cotter all scored in the second half, and UMSL finished with a 17-1 lead in shots on goal. Griffith and Allysa Wolf combined for the shutout, the Tritons’ 10th of the season.

Men’s Soccer
The Tritons saw their season come to an end over the week after a 1-1 tie at Truman State on Friday and 4-3 loss at William Jewell on Sunday left them ninth in the GLVC standings. Only the top eight advanced to this week’s conference tournament. Pablo Nodar scored to give UMSL a 1-0 lead in the 72nd minute against the Bulldogs on Friday, but Truman State’s Henry Jenks put in the equalizer with less than two minutes remaining and the match ended in a draw. The late-match heartbreak was even stronger on Sunday when UMSL battled back from a 3-1 deficit with second-half goals by Roman Ryabchenko and Alexander Ramirez Aoueiss only to see William Jewell’s Caua Ensciemento drive home the match-winner with 48 seconds to play. The Tritons outshot the Cardinals 16-9 but couldn’t get enough past goalkeeper Umberto Di Carlo, who made six saves. Coach Josh Alderson‘s team ended its season 5-6-6, including 4-5-5 in GLVC play.

Volleyball
UMSL ran its winning streak to 13 matches and improved to 10-0 in the GLVC after rallying for road victories against Indianapolis on Friday and Lewis on Saturday. The Tritons dropped the opening set against the Greyhounds but grinded out a 19-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-23 win. Setter Caitlin Bishop directed a balanced attack with 52 assists. Alayna Santel had a team-high 16 kills, and Bridget Cassady added 14, Hannah Copeland 12, Maggie Johnson 10 and Iyannah Jackson seven. UMSL closed out the fourth set on a 5-1 run, including a game-winning kill from Cassady, after trailing 22-20. The Tritons faced an even tougher challenge on Saturday as the Flyers forced them to a fifth set for only the second time during the winning streak in a 19-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17, 15-10 victory. Santel and Johnson each finished with 20 kills, and Cassady added 13. Bishop tallied 63 assists, and Skylar Weaver had a season-best 32 digs. Santel and Cassady combined for seven kills in the decisive set. UMSL (20-4, 10-0 GLVC) has now won at least 20 matches for the fifth time in seven seasons. Coach Ryan Young‘s team will take on visiting McKendree on Friday in the only match of the week before closing out the regular season against William Jewell and Rockhurst next week.

Men’s Basketball
The Tritons opened the season in the D2CCA Tip-off Classic on Saturday and Sunday in what marked UMSL’s first competition since losing all five starters from last season’s Sweet 16 team. The Tritons fell to Northwest Missouri State 82-79 in Saturday’s opener and lost to Missouri Western 71-63 at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri. UMSL trailed by 15 points at halftime against the Bearcats and were down as many as 20 points early in the second half before rallying to take a 73-72 lead with just over five minutes remaining. But Northwest Missouri State regained the upper hand and hung on to win despite 23 points and seven assists from Taye Moore. Meechy Phillips had 17 points off the bench, Jake Hamilton had 13, and Miles Boland scored 12 in the loss. UMSL went 10 for 22 from 3-point range and shot 50.8% from the field overall, but the Bearcats shot 52.5% from the field. The Tritons’ offense wasn’t as sharp against the Griffiths. Jayden Creighton scored 12 points, and Quenton Parker had 11 while UMSL shot 46.4% from the field and made just 6 of 17 3-pointers. But the Tritons’ real undoing was their inability to keep Missouri Western off the foul line. The Griffiths converted 22 of 28 free-throw attempts – compared to 5 of 9 for UMSL – in the victory. Coach Bob Sundvold‘s team is idle until Nov. 14 when it takes on Michigan Tech in the first game of the JustAGame Crossover at Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Men’s and Women’s Swimming
UMSL’s swimming teams split Friday’s dual meets against Rockhurst with the women beating the Hawks 140-65 and the men falling 105-100 at the UMSL Swimming Pool. The women took first in nine of 11 events. All-American Justice Beard led the way with victories in the 1,000- and 500-yard freestyle races, posting times of 10 minutes 28.18 seconds and 5:03.95, respectively. Libby Smith won the 200 free in 1:59.77 while Audrey Lantz, Romina Itzkovich and Madison Bottorff swept the top three spots in the 50 free. Lantz had a winning time of 24.77 seconds in the 50 free and also won the 100 free in 54.21 seconds. Callie Clinton finished first in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:00.49. Aeri La won the 100-yard backstroke in 59.57. The women also swept the 400-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays. UMSL’s men’s team won five of 11 events. Mikael Larsson match Beard’s double in the 1,000 and 500 freestyle races, posting times of 10:03.35 and 4:40.85, respectively. Lathan Parks edged out teammate Gabriel Wells in the 50 free with a winning time of 21.65 seconds. Kaleb Suitor won the 100 butterfly, and UMSL took first in the 400 free relay with Larsson swimming the anchor leg. The Tritons will compete against Truman State in a dual meet on Saturday at Pershing Natatorium in Kirksville, Missouri.