Conway – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team will open Missouri Valley Conference play on Wednesday night, hosting the Missouri State Bears at the Bill Stephens Complex. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM.

Central Arkansas (1-5-0, 0-0-0 MVC) is coming off of a win in its last game, a 3-0 defeat of Fort Wayne at the Dayton Flyers Invitational. On the season, the Bears have scored six goals in six games while allowing 10, but are outshooting their opponents 70 to 23. All told, head coach Ross Duncan has sent 22 players on to the pitch, due to injuries and effectiveness.

"It's been an unexpected start to the season for a lot of reasons," said Duncan. "We've played a lot more guys than we were expecting to play, for a number of reasons. That's good and bad; it doesn't help your consistency, but it gives more ownership to everyone in the program. And we've had good performances from guys that we didn't expect to make major impacts this season. We've played very well in our losses, which is frustrating because we know we're right there and not getting the wins, but to get some justification on Sunday against Fort Wayne for all of the hard work that we've put in is exactly what we needed heading into tonight."

Sophomore Niklas Brodacki leads Central Arkansas offensively, ranking second in the Missouri Valley with four goals and nine points. Central Arkansas has also gotten goals from senior Pepe San Roman and redshirt-freshman Kasper Andersen, while Brodacki, Anderson, San Roman, junior Chris Holmes, and freshman Kyosuke Kubota have all picked up assists on the year.

"For our attack it's really important that we have some alternative attacking options to Niklas," said Duncan. "If you've got one guy that is your goal-scorer then it's very easy to shut him down. But if you've got an attacking mid like Pepe that can score from distance and can make runs into the box, if you've got attacking support in guys like Kasper that can create goals on their own, then it takes pressure off of your target forward and allows him to get some chances that he wouldn't have gotten without that support. And there are guys that are right there and ready to contribute that we're asking to step forward as we move into conference play."

Two faces that have become a mainstay in the UCA starting lineup are freshmen Kubota and Lucas Genty, who have both played at least 77 minutes in the midfield in each of the Bears' last for games.

"Kyo and Lucas have been revelations," said Duncan of the young pair. "The impacts that they've made, while Kyo's is a little more obvious because of the assist against Fort Wayne and the chances he's created on goal, but Lucas put a shot off the crossbar against Dayton that would have put us up 2-0, and he's quietly been one of our most important players through these last few games. They're playing 90 minutes, and they're guys that fit perfectly into our system. It's justification for them that they're able to get those minutes, because they've really worked hard for them."

One area in particular that Central Arkansas has struggled with injuries is the goalkeeper spot, where incumbent starter Marc Olsen has missed time with a hip pointer. The young Dane made a return to the starting lineup against Campbell and had a big weekend at the Flyer Invitational, earning All-Tournament honors with seven saves against Dayton and a clean sheet versus Fort Wayne. Despite losing two-and-a-half games to injury, Olsen is tied for third in the Valley with a save percentage of .800, is tied for fourth with 16 saves, fifth with 4.00 saves per game, and is one of four keepers to pitch a shutout.

"Marc was able to work himself back in against Campbell and then put together very good performances in both games last weekend," said Duncan. "He's a guy that gives us stability, his service out of the back is very good, and on set pieces we feel very confident with him back there, and his communication with the backs is huge for us."

Central Arkansas' opponent on the night will be the Missouri State Bears, a team that UCA will be facing for the fourth time in 11 months. MSU, (1-2-1, 0-0-0 MVC) coming off a 2-1 loss to Memphis, has scored just three goals on the season, good for sixth in the Valley, but has equaled that mark defensively, coming in as the league's stingiest defense. Juniors Harry Lewis and Conor Ingram, along with senior Jordy Robins, have each scored one goal on the season for MSU, while in goal, senior Liam Priestly leads the MVC in goals against average (.711) and save percentage (.842), while tying for the league lead in shutouts (2) and making 4.00 saves per game.

The Bears and the Bears faced off three times last season, playing to a 1-1-1 record. Missouri State opened the season series with a 1-0 win in Springfield, Missouri, before Central Arkansas closed out the regular season with a 1-0 win in Conway. The two sides would do battle again just four days later, facing off in the first round of the MVC Tournament, hosted by MSU. UCA took a 1-0 lead in the 8^th minute on a goal from Wes Carson, but MSU would answer in the 27^th on a goal from Ricky Hoegg. With the match tied after two overtime periods, the winner was decided on penalty kicks, where the maroon Bears finished with a 5-4 advantage. All-time, Missouri State holds an 8-3-2 edge.

"Of all the teams in the country, we probably know Missouri State the best; but they've got 15 freshmen on the roster this year, so there are a lot of unfamiliar faces as well," said Duncan. "We've seen a lot of them on film already, we're coming into the game eyes wide open; we know what to expect from them. They're going to be very competitive, they're going to fight for every second ball, they're going to be good on set pieces, and they can play. They aren't just a direct team, they can press you into mistakes and they can play out of pressure. So for us it's going to be how sharp are we on the night and how committed are we to meeting and improving upon their intensity, and then how clinical can we be when it comes time to execute."