Women's Soccer | 9/4/2020 9:00:00 AM
After a six month hiatus, sports have returned to McPherson College. Four of the five Bulldog fall athletic programs will open up this weekend, with three of the four opening up on the road. The only program not in action this weekend is the Bulldog football team. Per NAIA guidelines, they will kick off their season the following Saturday, September 12.
After a seven year layoff, the Bulldog cross country program will be hosting a home race again this year, on a newly built course out at Bulldog Park. This weekend's race has been dubbed the McPherson College Carol Swenson XC Invite in honor of former Bulldog SID and longtime track and field / XC supporter Carol Swenson.
Both races will be 5K in length and will take place on Saturday morning. The starting gun goes off at 10:00 am for the women, with the men's race to follow at 10:30. Teams competing in the inaugural Carol Swenson XC Invite are all from the KCAC and include Bethel College, Bethany College, Friends University, Kansas Wesleyan, Ottawa University, and Tabor College.
Unfortunately spectators will not be allowed at this opening meet of the year, but the plan is to stream the races live online at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/mcpherson/.
The Bulldog volleyball team gets its season under way on Saturday with a pair of games in Salina, Kan., in a tournament hosted by Kansas Wesleyan. The Bulldogs open up at 12:00 against the Dakota State University Trojans out of the North Star Conference. The Bulldogs are 2-1 lifetime against the Trojans sweeping the last meeting back on September 8, 2017. In the 4:00 game on Saturday, the Bulldogs will face off against Southwestern College in a non-KCAC matchup. Southwestern has two teams playing in different tournaments this weekend, so the team the Bulldogs face on Saturday will likely be different than the team they meet in a few weeks during conference play.
On Sunday, the Bulldogs will wrap up the tournament with a pair of games starting at 12:00 pm. They will take the floor against the College of Saint Mary Flames out of the GPAC conference in the first match, and then will finish up with a match at 2:00 against Friends University, also a non-KCAC matchup. Friends was picked sixth in the KCAC pre-season poll, one spot behind the Bulldogs, so Sunday's match should be a good one. All four of the Bulldogs' matches will be streamed live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/kwu.
There are no non-conference tune-ups for the Bulldog soccer teams this fall. Their opening games on Saturday are also their KCAC openers. Saturday the Bulldogs make the short drive over to Sterling, Kan., for a match-up with the Sterling College Warriors. The Bulldog women kick-off first at 1:00 pm with the men's game following at 3:00. Going back to 2009, the Bulldog women are 8-3-1 against the Warriors including a 2-1 win in last season's game in Sterling. In the KCAC pre-season polls that were released earlier this week, the Bulldogs were picked in the 9th spot while the Warriors were picked to finish 13th.
On the men's side, the Bulldogs square off against a Warriors side that they have defeated 10 times in the past 11 seasons. Their only loss in that span came back in 2013, and it cost the Bulldogs a KCAC championship that season. In 2019, the Bulldogs needed overtime to defeat the Warriors 2-1. The winning goal came off the boot of Antoine Detavernier (So. Brugge, Belgium). In the KCAC pre-season poll, the Bulldogs were picked 3rd while their counterparts this weekend landed in the 8 spot.
Both games at Sterling on Saturday will be streamed live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sterling.
Be sure to check back at www.macbulldogs.com for full recaps of this weekend's action and follow us on social media Twitter: @MAC_Bulldogs, Facebook: McPherson College Athletics and Instagram: mcphersonbulldogs
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