Aug. 27, 2010

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Saint Louis University men's soccer battled to a scoreless tie Friday as both team's closed out the exhibition season.

SIUE Coach Kevin Kalish said his Cougars played well against the Billikens.

"It was a good performance. It was a complete performance by our team. I thought our guys played very well," he said.

The Cougars now return home to Korte Stadium for their season opener Wednesday. SIUE entertains Western Illinois at 7 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.

It wasn't anything new for the Billikens, which recorded ties in all three of their preseason games. SLU tied Evansville 1-1, Louisville 0-0 and now the Cougars 0-0. The two teams did not play overtime Friday evening.

With no scoring from either team, SIUE did win the battle of shots 10-5. Kevin Bielicki led SIUE with four shots. Midfielder Benny Jeffery added two for the Cougars.

"I thought we were sound defensively and felt like we moved the ball pretty well," said Kalish.

Joe Roeckle led SLU with two shots.

SIUE goalkeeper Scott Meyer, coming off a 0.94 goals against average last season, made two saves in the shutout. SLU shared the goalkeeper duties between Nick Shackelford and Mark Pais. Both made two saves.

Kalish said the Cougars have a number of things to work before Wednesday's opener

"We had a lot of positives to build on off tonight's match as the team prepares for its regular season opener," said Kalish. "The next step is getting the ball a little better in the final third."

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