Butler travels to the nation's capital for a Friday afternoon match-up of Top 15 programs as the Bulldogs meet Georgetown. In this week's United Soccer Coaches poll, the Hoyas are ranked No. 10, while Butler comes in at a season-best No. 15.
 
Butler leads the BIG EAST with a 3-0 mark, while Georgetown is one of three teams at 2-1 after the first third of the conference slate. Friday's match will air on the BIG EAST Digital Network, part of the FOX Sports Go app. The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
 
The Bulldogs are 7-2 overall and are ranked No. 8 overall in the first RPI rankings released by the NCAA. Butler has wins over four top-60 RPI opponents already this season: Creighton (No. 16), South Florida (No. 29), St. John's (No. 51), and Evansville (No. 52). Upcoming opponents currently ranked in the RPI top 60 include Indiana (No. 9), Georgetown (No. 22), and Xavier (No. 42). Butler's two losses on the season are at the hands of Louisville (No. 6 in the RPI) and Western Michigan (No. 11).
 
In addition to the United Soccer Coaches poll, Butler is in the Top 20 of all national rankings this week: Soccer America (No. 11), College Soccer News (No. 16), and Top Drawer Soccer (No. 18).
 
Butler is coming off a 1-0, double-overtime win over St. John's Saturday night in Indianapolis. Those two teams entered the contest as the only squads with 2-0 BIG EAST marks.
 
The Bulldogs have kept fans on the edge of their seat through the early part of the season as all nine results have been of the one-goal variety. Butler is also an incredible 4-0 in overtime contests.
 
Senior keeper Eric Dick's sprawling save in the second overtime robbed St. John's Wilhelm Nilsson of a goal and kept the score 0-0. Thirty seconds later, Butler was awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the box, which led to the 1-0 win.
 
For his efforts, Dick was named the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week for the second consecutive week and the third time this season. He has won the weekly honor in three of the six weeks this season. Saturday's shutout of St. John's was his fourth of the season and the 23^rd solo shutout of his Butler career. Dick is second in the BIG EAST in shutouts (four) and save percentage (0.825), while his goals against average (0.846) is third in the league. Dick has posted consecutive shutouts, which includes a four-save clean sheet at Providence Sept. 23.  
 
Butler's three BIG EAST wins have come against the only two teams – Creighton and Providence – picked ahead of Butler in the preseason poll, as well as the only other team that won both of its first two BIG EAST contests (St. John's).
 
The Bulldogs and Hoyas have met four times previously with Butler taking the 2016 match-up by a score of 4-2 in Indianapolis. David Goldsmith had two goals for the Bulldogs, who also got tallies from Isaac Galliford and Lewis Suddick. Georgetown had won the first three match-ups in the series that dates back to Butler joining the BIG EAST for the 2013 season.
 
Butler's lone goal in the 1-0 win at Providence Sept. 23 came off the foot of Brandon Guhl in the 31^st minute. Guhl leads the BIG EAST with seven goals. His seven goals have come on only 14 shots this season. Guhl ranks in the top 15 nationally with those seven goals and in the top 20 with 16 points. His point total also leads the conference. These are the first seven collegiate goals for the sophomore transfer from SMU. He has scored in five of the team's nine matches this season.
 
Lewis Suddick and Isaac Galliford each had an assist on Guhl's goal at Providence. Suddick has a BIG EAST-best five assists on the season. 
 
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, sophomore Alex Lehtinen headed in the game-winner off a Suddick corner kick. It was the first goal of Lehtinen's Butler career.
 
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 (Sept. 4) as Butler players have been selected for the conference's offensive weekly award in three of the five weeks so far this season. Additionally, Dick has earned weekly goalkeeper honors three times.
 
Butler's seven wins have featured six different Bulldogs with the game-winner (Suddick – twice, Guhl, Lehtinen, Harvey, Timmer, and Kieran Geldenhuys). Butler's 15 goals on the season include seven from Guhl, six game-winners from those other Bulldogs, as well as a goal from Isaac Galliford and a third goal from Suddick.
 
Suddick missed two matches earlier in the season. Butler is 6-1 in Suddick's seven matches. In those six wins, Suddick has scored two game-winners (both on penalty kicks) and assisted on the game-winner in the other four matches.
 
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.
 
In addition to Harvey's first career goal in the Evansville match Sept. 12, several other youngsters have been called upon early in the season. Redshirt sophomore Braden Van Allen got the first start of his Butler career against Evansville. The Evansville native began his career at VCU. Redshirt freshman Nathan Edmunds made his first Butler start in the match against Western Michigan Sept. 8, while Usman Gil Ivern and Maurice Thompson III played the first minutes of their Butler career against the Broncos.
 
Coach Paul Snape has gone deeper onto his bench in recent matches 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. Dick (one match) and Suddick (two matches) have missed time, while sophomore starter Derek Sutton returned to the line-up against Providence after missing three matches dating back to an appearance in the San Francisco match Sept. 3.
 
Galliford, Geldenhuys, Eric Leonard, and Joe Moulden have started all nine matches for the Bulldogs. Moulden is the only Bulldog to play all 835 minutes so far this season. Both Leonard and Geldenhuys have played all but five minutes. Bennett Kim had started the first seven matches before missing the past two matches with an injury.
 
Suddick, Guhl, and Leonard were named to the All-Tournament Team at the Adidas/IU Credit Forum Classic hosted by Indiana University over Labor Day Weekend. Butler posted a pair of 3-2 wins in Bloomington, defeating South Florida and San Francisco. South Florida was Butler's third consecutive opponent to open the season that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament field.

Leonard, Dick and Timmer are the team's captains for the 2017 campaign.

Entering the contest with Georgetown, Snape has a record of 59-42-20. 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.
 
Butler's next match is one of its last breaks from BIG EAST play as the Bulldogs travel to SIUE on Tuesday, Oct. 10. The Bulldogs return to conference play Oct. 14, hosting DePaul at the Sellick Bowl.