Mankato, Minn. --- The No. 13 Minnesota State soccer team earned the third seed in the 2019 NSIC Tournament and will play the sixth seeded U-Mary Marauders. The first round match will take place at The Pitch in Mankato, Minn., on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.

Looking Back at Last Week: The Mavericks dropped their regular season finale and now have a record of 15-3-0 (12-3-0 NSIC), finishing third in the conference regular season standings. MSU was upended by the regular season conference champions, Concordia-St. Paul, 1-0.

Concordia-St. Paul scored the lone goal of the match when freshman Katie Anderson sent the ball over the outstretched arms of senior goalkeeper Alexa Rabune in the 75th minute. Minnesota State was unable to tie the match up before the final horn sounded. The Mavericks held a 9-6 shot advantage throughout the game, but the Golden Bears put one more shot on net with the 4-3 advantage. MSU had plenty of corner kick opportunities with five compared to CSP's one.

Senior Alexa Rabune (13-2) suffered her second loss of the season, the first since Sept. 29th, making three saves in the match. 

NSIC Tournament: Minnesota State earned the No. 3 seed in the 2019 NSIC Conference Tournament after the regular season. The Mavericks will face the No. 6 seed U-Mary Marauders, looking to avenge a 2-1 loss in Bismark, N.D., earlier this season. 

All first round matches will take place at the top four seed's home site on Wednesday in the eight team tournament. Concordia-St. Paul earned the No. 1 seed after winning the regular season championship and will host the No. 8 seeded Winona State. Augustana garnered the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will host the No. 7 seeded Southwest Minnesota State. The last first round match-up will be the No. 4 seed Bemidji State hosting the No. 5 seed St. Cloud State.

The two semifinal matches and the 2019 NSIC Tournament Championship will be hosted by the highest seed remaining after the first round matches, Friday and Sunday this week.
 
Central Region Rankings: In the second edition of the Central Region Rankings last week, the Mavericks were second behind Central Missouri. As for the other NSIC schools, Concordia-St. Paul was third, Augustana was fourth, Bemidji State was seventh and U-Mary was ninth heading into last weekend's matches.

The NSIC, the Mid-America Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference(GAC) make up the 35-team NCAA Central Region. The top seven teams in the region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on November 23 & 25 and December 6 & 8. Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the MIAA, GAC and NSIC postseason tournaments, with the remaining four spots awarded on an at-large basis.

NCAA Selection Show: The NCAA DII Soccer Tournament bracket will be unveiled on the NCAA selection show following this weekend's matches. The selection show will be streamed on NCAA.com on Monday, Nov. 18 beginning at 5:00 p.m.

CoSIDA All-District: Senior Bri Ciaccio and sophomore Jenny Vetter were named to the CoSIDA All-District Team last week for their outstanding work on the field and in the classroom.

Ciaccio has scored a career-high five goals for a career-high 10 points in her senior season. She also scored a career-high two goals in the 4-0 win over Wayne State. Ciaccio has a 3.86 GPA, while majoring in communication disorders.

Vetter has had a monster season, leading the NSIC with 15 goals scored, 37 points and nine game winning goals, while also adding seven assists. The nine game winning goals are a single season record at MSU and currently lead all of NCAA DII. Vetter has a 4.00 GPA, while majoring in Biology.

Minutes Played: Senior Alesha Duccini has played the eighth most minutes all-time at Minnesota State at 5,702 minutes. Duccini has scored 17 goals and collected 17 assists for 51 career points in 79 matches played. Current graduate assistant Abby Hausken set the record last season at 6,551 minutes played.

Scouting U-Mary: The Marauders finished the 2019 regular season with a 11-4-2 (9-4-2 NSIC) record and finished sixth in the conference. Last week U-Mary defeated Northern State 4-1 on Wednesday before upending Minot State 2-1 on Friday.

Junior Hannah Richter led the Marauders in goals and points on the season with by scoring seven goals and collecting five assists for 19 points. Sophomore Madisyn Waltman started all 17 matches for U-Mary in the regular season, going 11-4-2 with a 0.51 goals-against average, .889 save percentage, 72 saves and nine shutouts.

Facing U-Mary: The Mavericks have a 12-1-2 record against the Marauders all-time. Minnesota State lost its second match of the season to U-Mary 2-1 on Oct. 4 in Bismark, N.D.

Looking Ahead: With a win on Wednesday, the Mavericks will continue on in the 2019 NSIC Tournament. The highest remaining seed will host the rest of the tournament on Friday on Sunday with opponents and times to be determined.