The defending Atlantic 10 Conference champion Saint Louis University women’s soccer team reports to preseason training camp Monday, Aug. 5.
The Billikens’ 29 players – six seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores and 10 freshmen – assemble Monday for meetings. The team holds its first training session Tuesday.
SLU returns seven starters and 10 additional players from its 2018 squad that posted a school-record 18 victories (18-4-1), went 10-0-0 in A-10 regular-season play, captured the conference tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Championship.
Senior defender Alli Klug leads four returning Billikens who earned postseason accolades a year ago. Klug garnered All-America (second team), first-team All-Region, first-team All-Conference and A-10 Defensive Player of the Year plaudits for a second straight season in 2018. She repeated on the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List earlier this month.
Senior midfielder Courtney Reimer joined Klug on the All-Conference first team, and sophomore midfielder/forward Hannah Friedrich was selected to the A-10 second team. Reimer and Friedrich collected second-team All-Region honors. Sophomore defender Isabel Burke joined Friedrich on the A-10 All-Rookie team.
Senior forward Alyssa Seitzer, senior midfielder Evie Lavelle and senior defender Emma Farley also return from last year’s first 11. In addition, the Billikens welcome back sixth-year senior goalkeeper Mary Niehaus and junior defender/midfielder Brionna Halverson, both of whom missed 2018 due to injury. Niehaus is a two-time All-Region and first-team All-Conference performer, while Halverson made the 2017 A-10 All-Rookie squad.
The Billikens’ first game action is Tuesday, Aug. 13, in an exhibition against SIUE at Robert R. Hermann Stadium. SLU begins the regular season Thursday, Aug. 22, at Notre Dame and follows with the first of nine home games Sunday, Aug. 25, vs. Indiana State.
Also on the home schedule are Drake (Sept. 1), Iowa State (Sept. 13), Purdue (Sept. 15), Dayton (Sept. 29), Saint Joseph’s (Oct. 3), St. Bonaventure (Oct. 6), La Salle (Oct. 13) and Richmond (Oct. 24). The Billikens were 10-0-1 at Hermann Stadium in 2018 and are 26-1-4 on their home pitch dating to the final home game of the 2015 season.
Saint Louis University hosts the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship semifinals and final Friday and Sunday, Nov. 8 and 10.
