Jeffersonville, Ind.  – The Maryville University men's soccer team defeated Bellarmine 4-2 in a shootout to claim its first Great Lakes Valley Conference Soccer Championship Sunday afternoon at the Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Ind. With the win, the Saints have also earned a bid to the 2018 NCAA Division II Soccer Championships that begin later this week.
 
What Happened – The two teams were locked into a defensive struggle for the first 38 minutes. The Knights had a few opportunities to score, but Christian Kjaersgaard made a pair of outstanding saves to keep the game scoreless. Ricardo Andrade put Maryville in the lead in the 38th minute as he took a touch from Zulfikar Karimi and scored from 10-yards out to put the Saints on top 1-0. Bellarmine evened the match in the  43rd minute with a goal to send the teams to the locker room deadlocked at 1-1. The Knights took the lead in the 57th minute, but Maryville answered just 16 seconds later. JD Sohn grabbed a long pass from Dom Riggio and slotted a shot past the Bellarmine keeper into the right side of the goal to tie the score 2-2. The game turned back into a defensive battle thru the last 52 minutes of the match as the teams went to a shootout with the score tied at 2-2. Gavino Carranza opened the shootout with a goal while Kjaersgaard stopped the Knights first attempt. After both teams missed their second attempts, Mirza Hasecic and Diego Coy found the net to give the Saints a 3-2 advantage. Karimi sent Maryville home a winner as he put his kick into the upper right corner of the goal to give the Saints their first conference title.
 
Inside the Numbers – The Saints were out-shot by the Knights 21-9 in the match with four of those being on frame. Kjaersgaard was credited with nine saves on the afternoon en route to his 11th victory of the season.
 
Records – Maryville – 10-4-5
                   Bellarmine– 12-5-2
 
Up Next – With the victory, Maryville earned the GLVC automatic bid into the 2018 NCAA Division II Tournament. The Saints will find out who they play tomorrow evening at 5 p.m.