The Creighton Bluejays men’s soccer team is 11-3-2 and 3-0-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bluejays have won six straight matches ahead of the final two MVC regular season games. We caught up with head coach Elmar Bolowich to break down the team’s recent results and Saturday’s Senior Day match against Missouri State.
WBR: Yet another shutout in Valley play against Bradley, could you talk a little bit about that game?
EB: It was what I expected. They played a tight game and we were fortunate to come away with a win. They play a different style, a sort of man to man defense. I thought we could have been better with possession and our ball control but like I said, we were fortunate to get the win.
WBR: Missouri State will be up next for Senior Night. What can we expect out of the Bears when they come to Omaha?
EB: They are coming in with their backs to the wall. They will need a win at our place to get an invitation to the conference tournament, so they will have a lot to play for. For us, a win would secure one of the top two seeds in the conference tournament, allowing us a bye on Thursday. That would be huge for us to get the rest.
WBR: Could you talk a little about how the seniors are handling the last regular season match at Morrison?
EB: It will be great for these guys to get some recognition as it is well deserved. It is always a little bit sad. But at the same time, we hope that we have a good amount of soccer for them to play at Morrison over the next month.
WBR: The game against Missouri State is an interesting as it is a sort of lose-lose situation in terms of RPI. Can you discuss the issue at hand a bit and how the RPI in soccer works?
EB: Well it will really matter at the end of the year when they get their final RPI ranking. With that said, the only chance they have to boost their number would be a win at our place. What happens is 75% of your RPI is your opponents’ strength of schedule and your opponents’ opponents’ strength of schedule. For example, when we were done playing Princeton, their RPI was 37. Two games after us, they lost to Adelphi, who had an RPI of about 155. They dropped 40 points after that loss. You need to be sure you don’t slip up against those teams. We need to make sure we don’t slip up against the likes of Central Arkansas, who is in the 150s as well.
WBR: How are the injuries coming along?
EB: We had a nasty bug go through our team last week. We had 2-3 players out of practice each day this last week. I think it is finally through everyone. Alex [Bolowich] is coming along. He looks to be about a week out. Besides that, we are in pretty good shape.