On Tap
A pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games are on tap this week for Macalester, which closes out the 2014 regular season with two home games.
 
Tuesday, the Scots take on Concordia at 7:30 p.m. before Saturday's Senior Night contest, at 7:30 p.m., versus St. Mary's.

Records
Macalester, 9-5-2 overall, 4-3-1 MIAC (13 pts, 5th place)
Concordia, 2-13-1 overall, 1-6-1 MIAC (4 pts, 10th place)
St. Mary's, 5-10-1 overall, 1-7-0 MIAC (3 pts, 11th place)
 
Last Week
The Scots had the week off from MIAC competition and played a single, non-conference game, Saturday, at UW-Superior.
 
Facing the region's 10th –ranked team, Macalester came away with a 1-0 victory as Cole Erickson notched his third goal of the season and Zeke Vainer recorded his third consecutive shutout.
 
When Last We Met
The Scots closed out the 2013 season on the road against this week's opponents and posted a 2-0 win at Concordia (10/29/13) and a 1-0 overtime victory at St. Mary's (11/2/13).
 
In the win over the Cobbers, Robin Forslund scored a pair of second-half goals, the second with just two seconds remaining in the game.
 
The win at St. Mary's came as Taro Takigawa scored his lone goal of the season, finish a Robert Tomecek corner kick with a header in the game's 98th minute.
 
Following the Scots
Live video and stats will be available via Macalester's Stretch Internet portal at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/macalester/.
 
He's the Boss
Gregg Olson is in his third season at the helm of the Macalester men's soccer team. During his time as the Scots' mentor, he has put together a 21-26-5 record.
 
In his second year with the program, Olson's squad doubled its win total from four to eight, having gone 4-13-1 in 2012 before posting an 8-8-2 mark last season.

Prior to being named the head coach at Macalester, Olson was an assistant coach at Stanford for four seasons and served as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Vermont, for six seasons.

A four-year starter for the Catamounts, and a 2000 graduate of Vermont, Olson was a team captain as a senior and graduated with degrees in English and Geography. The Rockford, Ill., native was a three-time winner of the team's Donoson Fitzgerald Award for perseverance, integrity and sportsmanship. After graduating from college, Olson spent two seasons playing semi-professionally before beginning his coaching career.
 
Mac Musings
Zeke Vainer posted his eighth shutout of the season and third consecutive in the win at UW-Superior. He now has a streak of 423 minutes, 59 seconds without allowing a goal. Besides his eight shutouts, he leads MIAC goalkeepers in games played (16), save percentage (.838) and wins (9).
 
With its ninth win of the season, Macalester has guaranteed itself a winning record for the first time since going 10-7-1 in 2011.
 
Cole Erickson's third goal of the season, Saturday, was also his second career game-winner. He had not scored a game-winning goal before this season.
 
Alan Schembri-Wismayer is the MIAC leader with nine assists, the most by a Macalester player since Martin Oppenheimer had 10 in 2001.
 
The Scots used 21 field players in Saturday's win, none of whom played the entire 90 minutes, as head coach Gregg Olson gave his players some rest heading into the final week of the regular season.


And Down the Stretch They Come
Four of the six spots in the MIAC playoffs have been secured but the final two spots, as well as final positions in the standings, are still up for grabs.
 
Macalester is fifth and losses by both Bethel (at Gustavus Adolphus) and Augsburg (vs. St. Olaf) Tuesday would secure the Scots' one of the six playoff berths.
 
With six points up for grabs this week, Macalester can finish as high as second in the standings and as low as eighth.

Up Next
The MIAC quarterfinals, with the third seed hosting the sixth seed and the fourth seed hosting the fifth seed, are slated for Tuesday, Nov. 4. The winner of the 3-6 seed will face the number one seed and the 4-5 winner will play the second seed, Wednesday, Nov. 5. The championship game, and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, is slated for Saturday, Nov. 8, at the site of the highest remaining seed.