FARGO, N.D. - After the first road trip of the Summit League season, the North Dakota State soccer team will return home to Dacotah Field for the final two home games of the season on Friday and Sunday, welcoming in Omaha and Denver.
 
The Bison take on the Omaha Mavericks on Friday night at 6 p.m. at Dacotah Field. North Dakota State will look to bounce back after two losses last week, taking on a Mavs team that the Bison swept last season. NDSU will close out the home portion of the schedule with a matchup against Denver, who enter the week as the only perfect team in league play, after starting the conference year at 5-0-0.
 
2021 Season Attendance Policy
With the return to a traditional fall season for the Bison and matches being played with the standard Dacotah Field layout, attendance to NDSU home soccer matches is once again open to the general public. Fans are strongly encouraged to wear masks to Bison soccer games and maintain social distancing where possible with the COVID-19 Pandemic still impacting our community.
 
WDAY Xtra
This week's game against Denver will feature live coverage on the ABC network WDAY Xtra, being televised across the state of North Dakota. Logan Campbell will be calling the play-by-play with Michael Breker as an analyst for the game. WDAY Xtra can be found over the air at WDAY channel 6-3 in Fargo, WDAZ channel 8-3 in Grand Forks, KBMY channel 17-3 in Bismarck and Dickinson and KMCY channel 14-3 in Minot and Williston.
 
Boo at NDSU
Aside from being the final home game of the 2021 season, the Bison soccer game on Sunday will also include Boo at NDSU, a Halloween themed kid-friendly event, costumes encouraged, leading up to kickoff. The event will be free and feature a Children's carnival and trunk-or-treating in Lot, F, just south of Dacotah Field, as well as inside the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track and Field Facility.
 
Algera Reaches Top 10 In All-Time Games Played for Bison
Danielle Algera is the active leader for NDSU in games played (78) and games started (71). The Winnipeg native reached the top 10 in games played for the Bison against North Dakota. She is just one start from the top 10 (72) in career starts for the green and yellow. Algera could climb to second in games played and third in starts. The senior surpassed 6,000 career minutes played in the Summit League opener against Oral Roberts. Algera is the is the active leader in minutes played with 6187.
 
Recent Debuts, Returns for the Bison
Two Bison made their returns from injury and also a debut for the Bison on the pitch in South Dakota. On Friday, Dani Stuber made her return from a long injury recovery with her first minutes this season. After missing all of last season, the Woodbury, Minnesota native came off the bench in both games last week, making her first appearance since starting all 18 games in the 2019 season.
 
Reagan Klose also made a return from injury, after missing all of her freshman season due to injury. Klose, a Bartlesville, Oklahoma native, made her Bison and collegiate debut in Sunday's game at South Dakota.
 
Scoring On Her Senior Day
Brookelyn Dew, a Fargo native and lifelong Bison fan, had a senior day to remember, scoring in the second minute against rival North Dakota to give the Bison an early lead in an eventual 2-1 win. The goal was the seventh of the midfielder's career and moved Dew into a tie with Olivia Lovick as the active Bison leader in points with 19 (7g, 5a).
 
Bison Quick Strikes
- A win over Omaha on Friday could see the Bison move into fourth in the league standings.
- Senior defender Ellie Schneider leads the Bison in minutes played this season, playing 1,111 of 1,115 minutes. Fellow center back Kaitlyn Hanson is the only other Bison over 1,000 minutes (1,010). The duo are also the only Bison to start every game. Schneider has started 40 straight games.
- Six different Bison have scored this season. Olivia Lovick is the only Bison with multiple goals on the year, scoring both of her goals in a 3-2 win over Oral Roberts.
- Jess Hanley, who has one goal this season, and Ellie Schneider are the only active Bison to score against Omaha, with both scoring in a 2-0 win against the Mavs last season.
- No Bison on the current roster has scored against Denver.
- Loretta Wacek recorded an assist in her first career start against UND in the last game at Dacotah.
- All seven newcomers (6 freshman, 1 transfer) have played and started at least two games this season. Payton Jo Armijo and Gabby Sangillo have played in all 12 games.
 
About Omaha
Omaha has had an up and down season and enters the matchup at 6-6-2. Omaha started off the year with a win, but lost to Wyoming 4-0. However, they responded with a 1-0 win over Nebraska and picked up ties against Minnesota and Missouri State before three straight losses. Omaha picked up three Summit League wins against Western Illinois, St. Thomas, and Oral Roberts, but is coming off a 2-1 loss to Kansas City. Omaha only has nine goals on the year with Sophia Green and Cece Behrens leading the team with two goals each.
 
The Series with Omaha
The Bison have been very successful again the Mavs, holding a 10-5-1 record all-time dating back to the first meeting in 1999. In the D1 era, the Bison are 8-2-1 against Omaha, including a series sweep last season.
 
NDSU is 8-2 all-time against Omaha in Fargo, and have just one loss to the Mavs in the D1 era at home, falling 1-0 in October of 2018. The Bison have won six of the last seven meetings in Fargo and fie of the last seven meetings overall in the series.
 
About Denver
Denver started the season strong with wins against Air Force and Colorado State, before beating power 5 programs Utah and Kansas State. However the Pioneers would fall out of the top 25,falling in five of their next six games. Since the beginning of Summit League play, Denver is 5-0 with three shutouts and at least two goals in each game, including a 6-1 win over Kansas City. Sydney Sharp leads Denver with 11 goals, while Kaitlyn Glover has seven. Both players have started all 15 games.
 
The Series with Denver
The Bison have struggled historically against Denver since the Pioneers joined the Summit League in 2013. Denver holds a 10-1-1 record against North Dakota State, including a 3-0-1 record over the Bison in Fargo. All three victories for Denver in Fargo have been by one goal.
 
Denver has won seven straight in the series since 2017, including a pair of Summit League Tournament victories. The last time the Bison picked up a result was a 0-0 tie in Fargo on October 14, 2016. The lone Bison win came in a 4-3 double overtime thriller in Denver in 2015.
 
On This Day
October 22 - The Bison and Omaha will meet for the second time in series history on October 22. The last meeting saw the Bison fall to the Mavericks 2-0 in Omaha. NDSU is 2-3 all-time on the 22nd, but have won their last two meetings on the date, 3-0 over Northern Iowa in 2006 and 4-0 over Fort Wayne in 2017, the only home game for the Bison in five games on the date.
 
October 24 - Like the other matchup, this will also be the second time NDSU and the Pioneers meet on October 24, with Denver claiming a 1-0 victory over the Bison in Fargo in 2014. The Bison are just 2-4 all-time on the 24th, with the last win coming in 1999. Vicki Schneider scored the fifth of 26 hat tricks in program history on the date in 1997 in a 4-1 win over Jamestown.
 
On the Horizon
The Bison will hit the road for the final time in the regular season as NDSU travels to Western Illinois and St. Thomas to wrap up Summit League play, looking to secure a spot in the Summit League Tournament. The Bison will play at Western Illinois on Friday and close out the regular season with the first-ever meeting with St. Thomas on Sunday.