The fall sports season at the University of Dayton gets underway Sunday afternoon as the womens soccer team faces Evansville at 1pm at newly-renovated Baujan Field. The Flyers and Aces played twice last year with Dayton winning both games in dramatic fashion. The first, at Evansville, was a 4-3 victory after a see-saw battle for much of the game. The second, a 3-2 victory at Baujan Field in the NCAA 1st Round, saw the Flyers build a 2-0 halftime lead, lose it minutes into the second half, and finally win the game in the final minutes on a Missy Gregg goal.

For Evansville Head Coach Mick Lyon, even defeat couldn’t take away from two great games in 1999-00.

“Any game that has five goals or more is going to be considered a great game,” he said. “The quality of the goals and the timing of the winning goals added to the excitement.”

As the Aces head into the Flyer opener, they will have a game under their belt. The Purple Aces face Miami (OH) tonight in their home opener, celebrating the dedication of refurbished McCutchan Stadium. McCutchan Stadium — the old football stadium before the University of Evansville discontinued football a couple years ago — recently underwent major renovations to convert it to a top-notch soccer-only facility for a school with a strong soccer history. The Evansville mens program has achieved great success of its own, earning #1 national rankings on more than one occasion. By all accounts, the new stadium will be a valuable asset.

“For a small school like Evansville, it is an incredible pull to have a great stadium and field,” Lyon said. “Players want a great surface to play on. I hope Dayton follows through and makes the playing surface the best – the teams deserve it.”

With a tune-up before the trip to Dayton, UE might have a slight advantage, but any scheduling pluses are negated by the graduation of Krissy Meek, UE’s all-time leading scorer and three-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

“We are young but I think the freshmen will be a good addition,” he says. “Our Senior class is short on experience but the Juniors lead the way.” One of those Juniors, Krista KcKendree, leads the way for the Aces as the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Defensive POY. It will be her job to put a cork in Missy Showtime Gregg’s offensive firepower. Luckily for Gregg, she had success scoring against the Aces a year ago, nabbing multiple goals in each contest.

Coach Lyon knows he has his work cut out for him. “Missy is a great player because she has multiple dimensions to her game. Denying her the ball will be a premium.”

Last year, Evansville played a brutal non-conference schedule, taking on the likes of Santa Clara, Marquette, Kentucky, SMU, Stanford, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Though the Aces finished around .500 overall, the Purple Aces staff felt it gave them an advantage late in the year, especially tournament time.

“As a coach I want to play against and watch great soccer and I can’t get that by scheduling ‘down’,” Lyon said. The key he believes is finding players who enjoy the challenge of playing the best there is. “Competitive players will rise to the occasion so playing good teams will make them better players.” But there’s an equal pressure to post victories and maintain a winning tradition. “As for padding the win column…this is a country of stats and coaches want them too.”

Like Dayton, Evansville is a small, regionalized Midwestern school looking to build a national program to compete against the North Carolinas and Notre Dames of college soccer. But it’s easier said than done. Dayton Head Coach Mick Tucker is finding exponential success on the field and in the recruiting wars, and Mick Lyon knows success equally well — he’s won four straight Missouri Valley Conference titles. But don’t expect either coach to discuss the magic potion. Said Lyon, “I can’t divulge the ‘secrets’ but hard work is a word that comes to mind.”

The season opener for the Flyers is a critical game. It’s much easier to set a nice tempo and build player confidence by winning early, and losing seems to be a contagious infection for many teams. The lone hurdle so far, an exhibition against talented Oakland University, ended in a 1-0 Flyer victory, good news considering Dayton lost to Oakland in double-overtime last year at Baujan Field. By all accounts, both coaches are approaching the game as a battle of two rivals who bring out the best in each other. Despite the stakes however, they remain humble and take heart in the fact that even the most important ones are less important than many fans believe.

Coach Mick Lyon said it best. “It’s only a game.” Indeed it is.