WKU Heads to the Lonestar State for a Pair of Matches

North Texas links: Live Stream (ESPN3) | Live Stats
Rice links: Live Stream | Live Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU soccer will hit the road for the second week in a row with matches at North Texas and Rice this weekend. With all three teams in the top five in Conference USA current standings, the weekend will play out to have major league implications as the end of the regular season approaches.

The Lady Toppers (8-4-1, 4-2 C-USA) will face North Texas (9-4, 4-1 C-USA) on Friday at 7 p.m. (CT) and then will travel to Houston to take on Rice (6-4-2, 3-0-2 C-USA) on Sunday at 1 p.m. (CT).

WKU and North Texas are each tied for second place in the standings with 12 points each. A conference win earns teams three points and a tie earns one point. Rice is right below them in fifth place with 11 points. A win or a tie for any team this weekend would shake up the conference standings with only two weeks left in the regular season after this week.

The Lady Toppers come into the weekend after earning the program's and head coach Jason Neidell's 200th win all-time last week at FIU. WKU logged extensive travel miles last week with matches at UTEP on Thursday and then at FIU on Sunday. The Lady Toppers showed no signs of jet lag, coming away with two wins.

WKU and North Texas are the league's two top shot-taking teams with the Mean Green firing 236 shots this season and the Lady Toppers with 225. All three teams have registered multiple shutouts with North Texas recording the most at eight, WKU next with six and Rice with five.

Ambere Barnett is leading WKU in points with 16 total on five goals and six assists in 2019. Ashley Leonard leads on the goal-scoring front, with seven on the year including one in WKU's most recent win against FIU. Ansley Cate joined Barnett and Leonard in the double figure points range with two goals last week bringing her season total to five along with two assists. Deven Jackson scored the game-winner for the Lady Tops against FIU and is up to four goals on the season and has two assists.

Anne-Marie Ulliac got her fifth clean sheet of the season against UTEP last week, giving her the second most of any C-USA goalkeeper this season. Her 0.96 goals against average is the sixth best in the league.

North Texas features the third leading goal scorer in C-USA in Berklee Peters, who has scored nine goals this season. Kelsey Brann, the starting North Texas goalkeeper, has shutout seven opponents this season which is the most in the conference. The Mean Green were the C-USA Champions in both the regular season and tournament last season.

Rice is led in points by Haley Kostyshyn (4 goals, 2 assists) and Louise Stephens (5 goals) this season. Bella Killgore has been the starting keeper for the Owls and has logged a 1.06 goals against average on the year.

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Players Mentioned

Ambere Barnett

Ansley Cate

Deven Jackson

Ashley Leonard

Anne-Marie Ulliac