The Missouri State men's soccer team (3-1-1, 1-0-0) will travel to Dallas, Texas, for this weekend's SMU Classic.  The Bears will face Houston Baptist (3-4-0) on Friday at 5:00 p.m. and host, SMU (3-3-0), on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Missouri State and Houston Baptist have never faced each other before, making Friday's meeting the first-ever matchup between the Bears and the Huskies.  The Bears and Mustangs have faced off 13 times with SMU taking 11 of the matchups.  Missouri State and SMU enter the weekend ranked No. 6 and No. 5, respectively, in the NSCAA Midwest Regional rankings.

Missouri State goalkeeper Alex Riggs enters the weekend riding a 327 minutes and 30 seconds shutout streak, including shutout wins over Centenary and Creighton.  Riggs was named MVC Defensive Player of the Week this week and has a 0.574 goals against average on the season, tied for 27th in the country.

Senior Johannes Demarzi, who earned MVC Offensive Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors, leads the Bears with four assists, all coming while playing the backline.  Demarzi got his fourth assist of the season on Saturday night with a beautifully struck corner kick that found Jordan Hoffman for the game-winner over Creighton.

Following this weekend's action, the Bears return home for a three-game homestand beginning Thursday, October 1 against Denver at 4:00 p.m.  Missouri State will then host Eastern Illinois October 4 at 1:00 p.m. and Creighton October 7 at 4:00 p.m. to open the home portion of conference play.