The Bison soccer team opened up conference play this past Thursday at Omaha, looking for a statement win over a strong Mavericks team. The Bison defense has shone throughout the non-conference portion of this season and it happened again on Thursday. The Bison defense once again allowed just one goal in the match against Omaha. The Bison offense also only scored one goal, so they ended up in a 1-1 draw. Omaha outshot the herd 17-8, and NDSU claimed seven saves. The one goal for NDSU came from Morgan Russmann 11 minutes and 52 seconds into the match. Omaha scored their goal with just 32 seconds remaining to save them from a loss, breaking the hearts of the Bison. This should be a good sign, considering Omaha was at the top of the conference for quite some time in overall record this season.

The Bison had a short turnaround and traveled to Kansas City for a match on Sunday to try and get their first conference win of the season against a team that was 6-2-3 coming into it. Once again, the Bison defense flexed their muscles as they pitched their 6th shutout of the season, defeating Kansas City 1-0. Hannah Arnold scored the only goal for NDSU, assisted by Morgan Russmann. NDSU outshot Kansas City 11-7, and NDSU recorded 1 save. Payton Mulberry continues her stellar season as goalie for NDSU as she has the 3rd most saves in the Summit League. Morgan Russmann is top in the conference in shots and shots on goal. Devon Kavanagh leads the conference in total points. Following this past week, the Bison now hold a 5-4-3 overall record and a 1-0-1 conference record. 

Looking ahead, the Herd doesn’t play until Sunday where they will travel north up 80 miles of interstate to play the Fighting Hawks of the University of North Dakota. The game is at 1:00 p.m. Last season, the Bison tied with the Hawks. The Bison lead the all-time series with North Dakota 12-6-2. Interesting enough this match will be played the day after NDSU and UND clash at the Fargodome in Football. Following that match, the Bison will finally return home to play Oral Roberts on Oct. 10th. They then travel to Denver before closing out the regular season with a three-match home stand against South Dakota State, South Dakota, and St. Thomas.