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PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:28 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
Loyola (1-0-0) faces new conference member Valpo (0-1-1) on Friday for the first time since the two schools were in the Horizon, and the first time under coach Neil Jones.

The Ramblers are coming off a big come-from-behind win at Xavier, in which they tied the match in the 2nd half and won in OT. It was a nice win against a middle of the pack Big East team on the road. Xavier plays in the same conference with Butler and Creighton, who are both ranked (Georgetown and Providence are also receiving votes). Loyola moved up from #21 to #18 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com rankings, and Loyola is recieving votes in the United Soccer Coaches poll used by the NCAA.

Valpo lost a close match at Northwestern, and then got an impressive result with a 1-1 tie at Michigan.... so they're no slouches, and they might make a surprising run in the MVC. Loyola was picked to win the conference in the preseason poll, and the Crusaders were picked for 6th, but there's always some bias against newcomers in polls like this, as Loyola saw just a few years ago. Valpo was 10-5-7 a year ago in the HL, where UIC won the conference tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament (losing to Loyola). They have a strong midfield, with Ramone Howell, Adan Garcia, and Jonas Engler projected to be three of the best 20 players in the MVC.

Loyola has the longest home unbeaten streak in NCAA men's soccer right now at 28 games. But it's always a dogfight in these very meaningful conference games. Friday's game is the first half of a weekend tournament called the Hilton North Shore Chicago Classic; the Ramblers play LaSalle on Sunday at 1:00 p.m., while DePaul will play LaSalle and Valpo.

I'll be at the game on Friday--- hope to see some folks out there.


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