Notes (PDF)

Butler, fresh off clinching the BIG EAST regular season title, will host Xavier Wednesday night at the Sellick Bowl in Indianapolis. The 7 p.m. match, which serves as the regular season finale for both teams, will air live on the BIG EAST Digital Network, part of the FOX Sports Go app.

The Bulldogs' 2-1 win Saturday night at Marquette coupled with Georgetown's loss at St. John's secured the regular season crown, the No. 1 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament and a bye into the tournament semifinals for Butler. The Bulldogs will host a BIG EAST semifinal on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Should the Bulldogs advance in that contest, they would also host the BIG EAST championship match on Sunday, Nov. 12.

Looking ahead to the tournament, St. John's, Georgetown and Xavier have also secured spots in the six-team BIG EAST Tournament. Creighton, Providence and Marquette are fighting for the two remaining berths. Villanova, Seton Hall and DePaul have been mathematically eliminated from making the tournament.

Butler is 7-1 in BIG EAST play after Saturday night's win at Marquette. The Bulldogs are 11-4-1 overall. Xavier enters the match at 5-3 in BIG EAST play (10-4-2 overall). Depending on Wednesday's results, Xavier could finish anywhere from No. 2-4 in the BIG EAST Tournament bracket.

Butler leads the all-time series against Xavier by a 12-5 margin. The Bulldogs have won three of four meetings since the teams both joined the BIG EAST in 2013. The Musketeers are the most-played BIG EAST opponent for the Bulldogs with a series that dates back long before the teams began meeting in conference play in 2013. In 2016, Butler won, 2-1, in Cincinnati as Lewis Suddick scored both goals for the Bulldogs. Butler played a man down for the final 18 minutes of the match; Suddick's game-winner came during that stretch.

Butler is 6-1-1 at the Sellick Bowl in 2017.

Butler's 2-1 win at Marquette Wednesday included the first goal allowed by the Bulldogs in 480:58 of game action, a stretch that dates back to an Oct. 10 loss at SIUE. Butler posted four shutouts between the SIUE and Marquette matches.

Those four shutouts include a 0-0 tie against (then) No. 1 Indiana on Oct. 18. That in-state match was played in front of 6,105 fans, the largest crowd in Butler men's soccer history and the biggest gathering since the Sellick Bowl was renovated in 2010. The previous record was 5,029 for the 2013 match against Indiana.

The double-overtime result against the top-ranked Hoosiers was the Bulldogs' first tie of the season as they had previously won all four of their overtime contests. It was the fifth straight match-up between the in-state rivals to go to overtime.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 17 overall in the RPI rankings released by the NCAA Monday, Oct. 30. Butler has wins over six top-100 RPI opponents this season (in addition to the tie against Indiana, which is No. 5 in this week's RPI): South Florida (No. 33), Creighton (No. 47), St. John's (No. 61), San Francisco (No. 72), Providence (No. 93), and Villanova (No. 97). Xavier is No. 52 in this week's RPI. Butler's four losses on the season include Louisville (No. 4), Western Michigan (No. 8), and Georgetown (No. 22).
 
The Bulldogs are ranked No. 21 in this week's United Soccer Coaches poll with a new poll due out Tuesday afternoon. Butler is ranked in all national polls: No. 10 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll, No. 16 by College Soccer News, and No. 21 in the Soccer America rankings.
 
Butler has posted shutouts in five of its eight BIG EAST matches with Eric Dick in goal for each of those contests. Dick has orchestrated shutouts in eight matches this season, For his efforts, Dick has been named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week four times this season. Dick earned a spot on this week's College Soccer News Team of the Week.
 
Dick has 27 career shutouts. He has a 0.84 goals against average this season, which is third in the conference. His 4.33 saves per game are second in the BIG EAST. His .833 save percentage is also second in the conference. He is one of two BIG EAST keepers with eight shutouts this season.

Suddick was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, Oct. 30. It was his second time earning the weekly honor this season. Suddick played a role in three of Butler's four goals last week. Suddick scored the game-winner at Seton Hall Wednesday night, which was his fifth goal of the season and his BIG EAST-leading fourth game-winner. Suddick assisted on both of Butler's goals at Marquette Saturday night, serving up a free kick that Joe Moulden headed in and finding Brandon Guhl up the right side for the team's second goal 40 seconds later. He has seven assists this season, tied for tops in the BIG EAST.

Suddick was named the No. 84 player nationally in a midseason list authored by Top Drawer Soccer. Suddick has missed three matches on the season. Butler is 10-2-1 in Suddick's 13 matches. In those 10 wins, Suddick has scored four game-winners and assisted on the game-winner in five of the other six matches.

The goal by Moulden was the first of the junior's career. Guhl's tally was his tenth of the season, which is tied for the BIG EAST lead and in the Top 20 nationally. His 23 points are also tied for the BIG EAST lead. These are the first collegiate goals for the sophomore transfer from SMU.

With the two goals against Creighton (in addition to an assist on Joel Harvey's game-winner earlier in the week in the 1-0 win over Evansville), Guhl was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and earned spots on the national teams of the week for College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer Sept. 18. Guhl joined Jared Timmer (Aug. 28) and Suddick (now twice) as Butler players have been selected for the conference's offensive weekly award. Additionally, Eric Leonard was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 23 after transitioning to the back line for shutouts against Indiana and Villanova. Dick has earned weekly goalkeeper honors four times.

Butler's 11 wins have featured six different Bulldogs with the game-winner (Suddick – four times, Guhl – three times, Alex Lehtinen, Harvey, Timmer, and Kieran Geldenhuys). Isaac Galliford is third on the team in points with eight (two goals and four assists).

The Bulldogs trailed 2-0 in the match with Creighton Sept. 16 before two goals from Guhl in the final 15 minutes of regulation tied the contest. Less than three minutes into overtime, Lehtinen headed in the game-winner off a Suddick corner kick. It was the first goal of Lehtinen's Butler career.
  
The win over Creighton was a rematch of the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship game that Butler won, 2-1, in Indianapolis. The BIG EAST title game win gave the Bulldogs an automatic berth in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, its first appearance since 2010. Butler has advanced to the NCAA Tournament on seven occasions (also 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2009, and 2010). Five of the first six came by earning the automatic berth that came from winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League Tournament.
 
Snape has gone deeper onto his bench this season after All-League player Timmer was lost for the season to a leg injury in the team's second match of the season (Aug. 28 at Louisville). Midfielder Marco Charalambous, a starter in 2016, was lost for the season due to a knee injury sustained over the summer. Starters Derek Sutton and Bennett Kim have also missed multiple matches due to injury, but both are currently back in the line-up.
 
Geldenhuys and Leonard are the only Bulldogs to start all 16 matches for the Bulldogs. Both Leonard and Geldenhuys have played all but five minutes this season. Moulden has played every minute other than being forced to sit out the IU match due to yellow card accumulation.
 
Entering the contest with Xavier, Snape has a record of 63-44-21. The Butler coaching staff, led by Snape, was named the NSCAA (now referred to as United Soccer Coaches) Great Lakes Region Staff of the Year for Division I institutions in 2016. This honor is a result of a vote by other coaches in the region.