Blue Demons Host Illinois on Thursday

CHICAGO - DePaul's women's soccer team will welcome the Fighting Illini at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday at Wish Field. They are looking to pick up their second win of the season and first program win against University of Illinois when they hit the pitch.

The Blue Demons (1-1-0) are prepared to take on the Orange and Blue after their shutout of UMass Lowell 7-0 in their match on Sunday. Senior forward Franny Cerny and sophomore forward Morgan Turner combined for five of those goals. With a young squad, head coach Erin Chastain's squad is coming off a 2017 season record of 7-7-5 in hopes of improving those numbers and starting the season out strong. This game aided in that goal.

"Our game Sunday against UMass Lowell was good prep for U of I because they play the same formation, but we know they're going to be good and they're coming off a really tough weekend in NC where they played two high level opponents, so they're gonna be ready," Chastain said. "We're certainly happy to be at home against them and we'll have a good three days of preparation before Thursday's game."

Both Cerny and Turner have earned BIG EAST awards - Franny was a unanimous Preseason All-BIG EAST selection and Turner was named to the Weekly Honor Roll on Monday for her hat trick against UMass Lowell. Cerny notched 10 goals last season while Turner netted four - the highest numbers of the returning players. Senior midfielder Madeline Frick finished the season leading with five assists.

RV Illinois (1-1-0) is up 1-0-0 in the series record between the two programs. For the 2018 season, they return 14 of their letterwinners, 10 of those being starters. In 2017, the Illini posted a 5-14-0 record.

To start off the 2018 season, they are coming off a big weekend in North Carolina. They dropped their first match against UNC 3-1, but came back with a strong win against third-ranked Duke, 2-1. Two first half goals from freshman Makena Silber, who was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after notching her first-career goal against the Blue Devils, and sophomore Katie Le helped the Illini take down their first top-three ranked opponent since 2012.

A key player to watch is junior goalkeeper Jaelyn Cunningham, who had a standout sophomore season, finishing second in the Big Ten for 106 saves on the year - 23^rd in the country. Averaging 5.6 saves per game, Cunningham finished second in that category as well in the Big Ten. She is the fourth member of the Illini to record 100 saves in a single season. So far this season, she has tended goal for all 90 minutes of each game against UNC and Duke, making six and four saves, respectively.

Live Coverage
For Thursday afternoon's match, fans can visit the DePaul women's soccer schedule page for all live coverage, links and more. Thursday's match will be showcased through our website. Click this link to view. Live stats for Sunday's match can be found here. Full recaps and statistics after each match this weekend will be posted to the Women's Soccer page.

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Players Mentioned

Franny Cerny

Madeline Frick

Morgan Turner

DePaul University Athletics