Creighton men’s soccer will kick off their portion of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament today at 6 p.m. The Bluejays play host to the #22 Bradley Braves with hopes of advancing to the championship on Sunday. We caught up with Elmar Bolovich to discuss the game tonight and the tournaments ahead.
WBR: Your team was awarded a number of honors by your peers in the Valley. How pleased are you as the coach to have so many of your players and your staff recognized?
EB: I think it was a great honor for our players to be recognized by the Valley coaches. They worked hard all year and they deserve everything they got. We have a great group and what will really matter will be our play on the field.
WBR: You will be facing Bradley tonight in the semifinals. This is a pretty good match-up for you guys in terms of RPI, correct?
EB: It worked out for us that Bradley is 26th in the RPI. If we were to fall to them it would not hurt us all that much, but a win would almost guarantee a top four seed. There is definitely a lot riding on the game tonight.
WBR: How is your team going into the tournament knowing that you are likely among the top 8 seeds for the NCAA Tournament?
EB: It is the knock-out portion of the season and everyone is giving you their best. We will not apply any changes to our game because what we have done has put us in this position. We will continue to play our game and we should be OK. We need to stay focused on playing our way and transition what we have worked on in practice this week.