The nationally seventh-ranked Drury men’s soccer Panthers will try to secure home-field advantage throughout the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament when they close out the league’s regular season this weekend with matches at Saint Joseph’s (Friday) and Wisconsin-Parkside (Sunday).

Drury, 14-1 overall, has an 11-1 league record and owns a one-game lead over Northern Kentucky in the standings entering the final two matches; the Norse would hold any tie-breaker by virtue of their head-to-head, 2-1 victory over the Panthers last weekend in Springfield. NKU plays host this weekend to Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis.

Drury’s first stop is Rensselaer, Ind., for a 7:30 p.m. matchwith Saint Joseph’s, which has records of 8-6-2 and 5-5-2, and counts wins over Northern Kentucky and Rockhurst among its five triumphs.

The Panthers will then trek to Kenosha, Wis., for a 2:30 p.m. match Sunday with the Rangers of Wisconsin-Parkside, who will take a 12-3-2 overall and 7-3-2 league record into Friday’s home match with Rockhurst.

Coach Ryan Swan’s Panthers, with a pair of victories, would secure a first-round home match in the GLVC Tournament on Sunday, November 1, and were they to obtain the No. 1 seed from the final regular season standings, would be in line to host the semifinals and finals the following Friday and Sunday should they get past the first-round match.

Drury is also the No. 1 ranked team in the Midwest Region rankings, which determine the NCAA-II Tournament participants, just ahead of No. 2 Northern Kentucky, which lost at Carson-Newmann in a region game on Wednesday, a day after the latest standings were released.

I chatted with Steve Wilczewski, senior from Glendale, about his senior teammates. If the Panther’s fail to secure the home field advantage for the 1st round of the playoffs, your last chance to see Steve and his teammates play at home is this Friday October 30th against Northeastern State.