Men’s Soccer Hosts Evansville Wednesday Evening to Cap Regular Season

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Following its dominant, 5-0 rout at Bradley University last Friday night, the Belmont University men's soccer team wraps up the regular season Wednesday evening at E.S. Rose Park. The Bruins (7-2-6, 2-2-2 MVC) host the University of Evansville in a 6 p.m. kickoff from the Music City.
 
The regular season finale will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Wes Boling on the call. Live stats of the home match can be followed by visiting BelmontBruins.com.
 
Belmont soccer fleece blankets will be given away to fans in attendance beginning one hour before kickoff, while supplies last.
 
What's Bruin

• The Bruins are vying for a top-four seed and hosting responsibilities for the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
• Belmont clinched a spot in the six-team 2025 MVC Championship this past Friday with its sixth road shutout of the season.
• Securing their ninth road result of the year, the Bruins smashed in five goals for the most in a match since Belmont defeated Virginia Military Institute by an identical 5-0 score on Oct. 2, 2021, in Lexington, Virginia.
• The Bruins are an impressive 5-0-4 on the road this season.
• Last Friday night's victory was Belmont's first since throttling Bowling Green 4-1 at home on Oct. 3.
• The Bruins have dropped only two matches over the last 376 days.
• Belmont has conceded multiple goals in only two matches this season – a 2-1 home loss to the University of Illinois Chicago on Oct. 12 and a 2-2 road draw at Northern Illinois on Oct. 17.
• Prior to their loss to UIC, the Bruins held a program-record 13-match unbeaten streak, which dated back to Oct. 25 of last year. It was the third-longest unbeaten streak in the nation at the time.
• Belmont was undefeated through its first 11 matches of the season for the first time in school history.
• The Bruins have outscored their opponents 26-11 this season and Belmont's plus-six goal differential in MVC play is tied for best in the league. No other MVC team has scored as many goals as the Bruins (13) in Valley play.
• Redshirt junior forward Brock Kiper landed MVC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career after posting five points in Belmont's road win at Bradley. He registered the Bruins' first brace of the season and added an assist on Belmont's second goal (Nzuhri Biggar).
• In only 39 minutes on the pitch in Peoria, Illinois, Kiper found the back of the net twice. Within 15 seconds of coming off the bench in the 30th minute, Kiper gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead. After finding freshman midfielder Biggar for Belmont's second goal, Kiper made it 4-nil in the 66th minute.
• Kiper's scores against the Braves were his team-leading fifth and sixth goals of the season. The Mason, Ohio (Archbishop Moeller HS), owns a team-high 15 points on the year and his 14 career goals are tied for the fifth-most in program history.
• Both Biggar and redshirt sophomore forward Lucas Wolthers scored their third goals of the season in the Bruins' 5-0 road triumph Friday. Redshirt junior defender Nate Mefford put an exclamation point on the night with his first goal of the season, connecting with his left foot off a corner kick in the 81st minute.
• Graduate goalkeeper Grant Calvert claimed his fifth clean sheet of the year against Bradley, putting together a career-high tying seven saves, including making four stops in the closing 25 minutes. For five-straight matches, Calvert has tallied at least four saves.
• Calvert's 82.8 save percentage is tied for 14th-highest in the nation, while his 0.741 goals against average is 22nd-lowest in the country.
• Twelve different Belmont players have found the back of the net this season – Kiper (6), freshman forward Jaxon Stokes (4), Biggar (3), Wolthers (3), senior captain midfielder Brad Dildy (2), sophomore midfielder Emmanuel Aranda (1), senior defender Riley Clothier (1), graduate defender Parker Forbes (1), redshirt senior forward Jimiyu Mark (1), Mefford (1), freshman midfielder Paul Claes Nielsen (1), and sophomore midfielder Louis Peña (1).
• The Bruins will be returning to the MVC Championship after missing out on last year's postseason. In Belmont's first season back in the Valley in 2022, the Bruins reached the MVC Championship semifinals.
• In the latest NCAA RPI (Rating Percentage Index) rankings, Belmont sits just inside the top 100 at No. 99.
• Evansville enters the final match of the regular season ranked 87th in the RPI.
• The Bruins have secured results against four teams ranked in the top 80 of the NCAA RPI – No. 59 Louisville (0-0), No. 64 Harvard (1-0), No. 75 Northern Illinois (2-2) and No. 77 Bellarmine (1-1).
• Going back to last season, Belmont has achieved a result in 16 of its last 19 matches.

Bruins at Home

• The Bruins have posted a result in 37 of their last 45 matches at Rose Park, outscoring their opponents 65-33 during that stretch.
• Since the start of the 2018 season, Belmont is 31-14-13 at home.
• The Bruins have finished .500 or better at home for seven consecutive seasons.
• Three of Belmont's final five matches of the regular season have been in Nashville.

Versus Evansville

• Wednesday evening will be the 19th all-time meeting between the Bruins and the Purple Aces with Evansville holding an 11-3-4 lead in the series.
• Since Belmont rejoined the MVC, the Bruins and Purple Aces have played to a draw in four of their five meetings. Both of the last two matchups have ended in 2-2 draws.
• The two teams met in the semifinals of the 2022 MVC Championship in Springfield, Missouri, where Belmont was the No. 5 seed and Evansville the No. 3 seed. A lone 65th-minute strike by the Purple Aces proved to be the difference.
• The Bruins' last win in the series took place on Oct. 12, 2021, at Rose Park, a 2-1 result behind a game-winning goal from AJ Chastonay ('24).
• Redshirt senior defender Dylan Steely provided the 2-2 equalizing goal in the 61st minute in last season's regular season finale in Evansville, Indiana.
• Two seasons ago, Belmont punched its ticket to the MVC Championship against Evansville with its 2-2 home draw. Kiper scored the Bruins' first goal of the match, evening things at 1-1 in the 54th minute.
• Belmont is 2-2-2 all-time versus the Purple Aces in Nashville.

About the Purple Aces

• Evansville (6-3-8, 3-0-3 MVC) is undefeated in MVC play and has all but locked up the top seed for the MVC Championship.
• With their 1-0 home win over Northern Illinois last Friday night, the Purple Aces clinched at least a share of the MVC regular season title. The victory also ensured Evansville a top-two seed and first-round bye for the MVC Championship.
• Prior to their win over the Huskies, the Purple Aces played to draws with Bradley (1-1), UIC (2-2) and Drake (0-0). Both of Evansville's draws against the Flames and Bulldogs were on the road.
• The Purple Aces are 3-2-4 away from home this season.
• Evansville won last year's MVC Championship in overtime as the No. 5 seed, defeating third-seeded Bowling Green 3-2.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Michal Mroz was tabbed MVC Defensive Player of the Week Tuesday afternoon.
• Freshman forward Andres Escudero, a San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain, native, has scored a team-best eight goals this fall.
• Both freshman midfielder Devin Shepherd and senior forward Tancredi Fadda have placed four balls in the back of the net each.
• Sophomore defender Martin Wurschmidt, a member of the 2024 MVC All-Tournament Team, owns a trio of goals as the Purple Aces' fourth-leading scorer.

Up Next
The Bruins will be either the No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6 seed for the upcoming MVC Championship, which begins Sunday afternoon with first-round matches. The top two seeds of the six-team tournament receive a bye to the semifinals, which will take place next Wednesday, Nov. 12. The higher seed hosts each round of the 2025 MVC Men's Soccer Championship. The entire MVC Championship will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
How to Follow
Follow Belmont men's soccer on social media – @BelmontMSoccer on X, formerly Twitter, @belmontmsoccer on Instagram and Belmont University Men's Soccer on Facebook – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.