The 2009 State Farm MVC Women's Soccer Championship continues this Friday with semifinal matches from Omaha, Neb.  Top-seeded and regular-season champ Illinois State will be looking for its first title since 2003 as the Redbirds open with Drake at 3:30 p.m.  Both semifinals are available on MVC LIVE - the conference's videostreaming package.  While the championship match on Sunday is on the MVC TV Network.

All four of the league's four tournament semifinal qualifiers have previously earned a conference women's tournament championship.  Evansville, eliminated in the opening round, has the most titles (six).
 
Tournament Crowns
6 -- UE (1996, 97, 98, 99, 01, 08)
4 -- CU (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007)
1 -- Drake (2006)
1 -- Illinois State (2003)
1 -- Missouri State (2000)

For a full set of conference notes, which includes school-by-school notes, results/schedules, click on the PDF link near the bottom of this page.

2009 State Farm MVC Championship
Sun., Nov. 1 - Opening Round (at campus sites)
#6 Evansville at #3 Creighton CU, 1-0
#5 Indiana State at #4 Drake DU, 3-1

Fri., Nov. 6 - Semifinals (Omaha, Neb.)
#4 Drake vs. #1 Illinois State (MVC Live) 3:30 p.m.
#2 Missouri St. at #3 Creighton (MVC Live) 6:00 p.m.

Sun., Nov. 8 - Championship (Omaha, Neb.)
Semifinal winners (MVC TV) 1:07 p.m.

Live stats and video are available for the State Farm MVC Tournament semifinals, while the championship match will be on the MVC TV Network, with live stats provided by Creighton.  Scott Warmann and Dave Dir will provide commentary for the semifinals on MVC LIVE, while Sean Wheelock and Dir are the on-air talent for the title game.

The title match will be shown live at 1 p.m. on Fox Sports Midwest (only in the state of Illinois), Fox Sports Indiana, Fox College Sports, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and Metro Sports - the league's production company which is based in Kansas City, Mo.  The match will also be seen live on alternate cable system channels on Cox Media (channel 22 in Omaha, Neb.), Mediacom (channel 22 in Des Moines, Iowa and channel 22 in Springfield, Mo.) and Charter Media (Channel 8 in St. Louis, Mo.).

Drake faces Illinois State in the first semifinal match in Omaha.  The Bulldogs and Redbirds have met three times previously in the conference championship with Drake holding a 2-1 advantage in the tourney series.  ISU beat Drake this year, 2-0.

Missouri State will be playing its 23nd match in tournament history, while Creighton is playing its league-high 29th all-time tournament game.  Oddly, the two programs have met only once (2008) in the championship, and each has played in every league championship since 1996 (14, counting 2009).  Creighton shut out MSU this year, 3-0.

The league completed its regular-season non-conference slate with a 31-37-11 mark.  Most of the leagues non-league matches have taken place away from home (50 of 79).

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (Nov. 2)

Offense
Brittney Neumann, Creighton, Fr., F, Omaha, Neb.
   Neumann scored in both of Creighton's matches against Evansville this week, posting an assist on Thursday and scoring the game-winning goal in Sunday's MVC Quarterfinal match. Sunday's goal marked the seventh on the season for Neumann, as she now leads the team with 19 points (7g/5a).

Defense
Melissa Lewis, Drake, Sr., D, Edina, Minn.
   Lewis turned in the save of the season for the Bulldogs in the 27th minute (26:52) of Drake's 3-1 victory over Indiana State.  With the Bulldogs nursing a 1-0 lead, Casey Allbright's shot got past goalkeeper Kourtney Arnold and Lewis raced out of nowhere and was able to get her foot in front of the ball just before it crossed the goal line.  The save was huge as it would've tied the game at 1-1 (and with Allbright's tally to start the second half ultimately given Indiana State a 2-1 lead three minutes into the second half).  The Bulldogs didn't score the game-winning goal until the 87:48 mark to record their first MVC Tournament win since 2007.