Fort Hays State Men's Soccer is gearing up for a solo match this week against Northeastern State on Thursday (Oct. 26) at 7 p.m. The Tigers enter the contest at 6-6-2 overall, including a 5-2-2 record in conference play.

Fort Hays State's recent matches against Ouachita Baptist and Harding both ended in blowout wins, scoring 10 goals as a team over the two contests. These two victories put the Tigers second in the conference standings with 17 points. The team is determined to keep the hot streak going and has shown flashes of scoring at will this season, now with 26 goals in 14 matches holding a .443 shots-on-goal percentage. Leading the charge in the scoring department graduate student Blake Arndt, who is currently tied for fourth in the GAC with seven goals. He netted his first career hat trick in the win over Ouachita Baptist. Rising fast in scoring the last couple weeks is Elias Ovelar Semeniuk, who put in four goals last week and earned GAC/MIAA Offensive Player of the Week honors. He has six goals on the season and has shown aggressiveness offensively, ranked third in the conference in shots per game with 2.82 per game. Ben Dixon was in goal the past two matches and earned Goalkeeper of the Week for the GAC/MIAA with seven saves and a shutout last week. 

On the opposing side, Northeastern State comes into the matchup with a season record of 6-4-3 (4-3-1 GAC). The RiverHawks are coming off a nail biting 2-1 loss against GAC-leading Southern Nazarene, but knocked off nationally ranked Rogers State last week. This week, Northeastern State moved into the national rankings at No. 24, while Rogers State dropped into the receiving votes list. Ivan Lopez leads the scoring for the RiverHawks with five goals so far this season. The NSU defense has been stout, giving up only 10 goals on the season.

Historically, FHSU has a 15-9-7 record against NSU and the teams tied 2-2 in Tahlequah earlier this season. FHSU is still in search of its first win against a Top 25 ranked team this season. The last win over a ranked team came last season on October 20 when the Tigers defeated a No. 19 ranked Southern Nazarene squad in Hays.