Ups and downs are a very common thing in sports; a player will get hot at the right time and have the week, month or maybe just the game of their life. This also holds true when talking about a team.

The Missouri Southern soccer Lions travelled to Kansas this past weekend to face off against MIAA foes Washburn and Emporia State Both teams were sitting above the .500 mark, but the Lions had defeated top opponents such as nationally ranked Central Oklahoma this season. The outcome of the two matches would have been as easy to predict as picking the winner of a bout between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

Unfortunately, the Lions are one of the streaky teams mentioned above. They will play huge at times and rather unspectacularly at others.  This past weekend it just so happened to be lackluster.

The Lions faced off against Washburn on Friday and suffered a 2-0 loss. The Lions were outshot 17-6 and had trouble developing an attack against a strong Washburn squad. Sunday afternoon the Lions found themselves at Emporia for their last regular season road game of the year.

It was a game that went sour from the start. The Lions couldn’t stop the Emporia attack, allowing four goals in the first half of play, including two goals that were scored within 40 seconds of each other. Emporia State would add two more goals before freshman midfielder Hannah Cook scored her first goal of her career for the Lions. The game ended 6-1.

Tonight, the Lions will look to get back in form at home against a Missouri Western team that hasn’t won a conference game all season. With a conference record of 0-9-1 (Win-Loss-Draw) and a road record of 1-8 the Lions will look to come away from the match with a victory.

Senior Day is on Sunday against Northwest Missouri State team. The Lions will look to send the seven seniors out with a big win over a conference rival.

“With this weekend being our last home games, that is motivating us,” said senior Dana Wilhelm. “We also want to come back from the games last weekend. We know we are better than that.”

The seven seniors playing their final home game are forward Tiffany Laughlin, midfielder Wilhelm, forward Kelly White, defender Samantha Zoltanski, goalkeeper Abby Risner, midfielder Ali Amayo and defender Megan Jenisch. The Lions have amassed 22 wins since this group’s freshman season.