Conway – After a short non-conference slate consisting of four games to start the season, the Central Arkansas men's soccer team is set to begin its Missouri Valley slate on at the Bill Stephens Soccer Complex on Friday night. The Bears will host Missouri State, with kick off scheduled for 7:00 PM.

After their season opener was postponed due to weather, Central Arkansas (2-2, 0-0 MVC) got the season started with a 2-1 win over Incarnate Word and followed that up with a 2-0 victory over Eastern Illinois. Last weekend, the Bears made a road trip to California for a pair of games against St. Mary's and San Francisco. Though Central Arkansas suffered a pair of losses on the trip, head coach Ross Duncan was very pleased with what he saw from his squad in the Golden State, saying, "Friday [against St. Mary's] was the best that we've played, maybe since I've been here. We prepared really well and the guys knew what we wanted to do, and they executed it basically to perfection. We went through 70 minutes of great soccer and then we got dealt a tough hand for the last 20 minutes of the game, but our guys responded really well." The Bears held a 1-0 lead until the 70^th minute and then, after suffering a pair of bookings surrendered a pair of goals just two minutes apart to fall 3-1 to the Gaels. "In those types of situations, you can fold and complain about the circumstances, but our guys just kept fighting and, if anything, I've never had a loss feel like such a win in my coaching career," said Duncan.

On Sunday, Central Arkansas fell to San Francisco 2-0, but again Duncan found plenty of positives in the performance, saying, "we were very organized. Our boys fought and scrapped, and we had chances. I hate the results, because this is a results-based profession. We're 2-2 now, and obviously I'd love to be 4-0 or 3-1, but our conference schedule is the priority and I'd rather be 3-2 after Friday night than be 4-1 with the loss coming on Friday. We've been preparing for conference play with everything we've been doing."

Missouri State (2-1-2, 0-0 MVC) comes into Friday's match just ahead of Central Arkansas in the MVC standings. The maroon Bears sport wins over Incarnate Word and SMU and have drawn with Memphis and UMKC. "It's going to be a tight game," said Duncan of Friday's match. "They were regular-season champions last year, and they didn't lose a whole lot, so they return a lot of experience. But we've gotten a lot better from last year and, obviously, playing at our place is a lot different than playing at their place."