THIS WEEK:The University of Mary takes its final full-weekend road trip of the regular season when the Marauders set sail to the southern reaches of the Northern Sun. U-Mary opens the two-game trip at Wayne State College in Wayne, Neb., on Saturday, Oct. 25. The weekend continues at Augustana College, the 3rd ranked team in the NCAA Central region poll, on Sunday, Oct. 26, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Game time both days is 1 p.m.

THE RECORDS: The Marauders are 4-7-3 overall this season and 3-6-2 for 11 points and 10th place in the Northern Sun... Wayne State Wildcats are 2-11-1 overall and 1-10 with three points for a 15th place tie in the NSIC... The Augustana Vikings are 11-3 overall and 9-2 for 27 points and 4th place in the NSIC.

LAST WEEK: The Marauders split a pair of games in central Minnesota, defeating St. Cloud State University 2-1 in overtime before suffering a 3-0 loss at Minnesota Duluth.

SPLITSVILLE: The Marauders have split their last two weekend series, picking up the first game of the weekend before dropping the second.

PLAYOFF PUSH - THE SITUATION: The top eight teams make the Northern Sun post-season soccer tournament. The Marauders are currently tied for 10th place with 11 points and four games to play. Minot State and Southwest Minnesota State are tied for 6th place with 19 points. Minnesota Crookston and Minnesota Duluth, both of whom have played one more game than the Marauders, are tied for 8th place with 18 points... Both UMC and UMD have played 12 games. U-Mary, MSU and SMSU all have played 11 games, so have an extra game remaining than UMC and UMD... The Marauders have lost to UMD and SMSU and have tied MSU and UMC.

PLAYOFF PUSH - THE HOPE: The Marauders have a lot of ground to make up in a short period of time. Trailing the final playoff slot by seven points, U-Mary needs to pass any two of UMC, SMSU, UMD and Minot State. Three of the Marauders four remaining games are on the road. Three out of the four remaining U-Mary games are against teams below the Marauders in the standings. The one team ahead of the Marauders in the standings - Augustana - is just 2-5-1 all-time against U-Mary.  

OPPOSITION PARTY: Wayne State College has struggled on both ends of the pitch this season. The Wildcats are tied for 13th out of 16 schools in scoring in the NSIC, posting 12 goals in 14 games. WSC snapped a 12-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over Concordia-St. Paul. It was just the second game this season where Wayne State has scored multiple goals. Josie Brown, McKenna Adams and McKenzie Hallstrom each have two goals this season and Mallory Hoyt has four assists. The Wayne State defense is 15th in the NSIC, allowing 2.64 games per game... In the first NCAA regional rankings of the year, Augustana was third in the Central. Minnesota State is at the top, followed by Central Missouri and Augie. The top six teams in the final poll advance to the NCAA championships. The Vikings dropped out of the national coaches' poll after a 5-1 loss to #1 Minnesota State. With 30 goals scored, the Vikings are third in the NSIC. Payton Pry leads the Vikings with ten goals. Ashley Limmer has four shutouts and a 0.99 goals against average.   

ALL-TIME: The Marauders are 7-0-1 against Wayne State. The lone blemish was a draw in 2010. U-Mary won 4-0 last season... U-Mary is 5-2-1 all-time against Augustana, including a 2-2 tie last year.. Augie last won 2-1 in 2010.

FIRST STRIKE: U-Mary has scored first in seven of 12 games.

CHIPPING IN: Through 14 games this season, ten different Marauders have tallied goals. Two others have assists. Last year only six players had goals and 11 had either a goal or an assist.

PK: Zara O'Hagan scored both Marauders goals on penalty kicks in a 2-1 overtime win at St. Cloud State. This was the first time U-Mary has scored twice on penalty kicks in the same game in the NCAA era, and the first golden goal penalty kick.