The Bulldogs open BIG EAST play Saturday afternoon, hosting Creighton in a rematch of the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship game that Butler won. Saturday's match will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network, part of the FOX Sports Go app.
 
The match is set to start at 1 p.m., and will be held at Varsity Field on the northwest side of campus. It is Butler's only home match that will not be played at the Sellick Bowl this season. The men's soccer team is inviting back alumni for the match, including the 1995 team that will be inducted into the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday evening.
 
Butler enters the match with a 4-2 record, including a Tuesday night win over Evansville. Both Butler and Creighton (3-2) are receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches national poll this week.
 
Butler's 1-0 win over Evansville Tuesday included the first goal of freshman Joel Harvey's Butler career. He, Eric Leonard and Brandon Guhl connected on a series of quick passes that ended up with Harvey 1v1 with Evansville keeper Frederik Reimer from eight yards out. Harvey's goal came in the 12^th minute.

Senior keeper Eric Dick made four saves in the shutout win, including two diving stops in the 90^th minute to preserve the clean sheet. It was the second solo shutout of the season and 21^st of Dick's career. Dick missed the loss to Western Michigan in the previous game due to illness.

In the most recent match-up between Butler and Creighton, the Bulldogs pulled out a 2-1 win at the Sellick Bowl in the championship match of the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament. It was Butler's first win in the series as Creighton now holds a 7-1-1 advantage all-time.
 
The Bulldogs got goals from Isaac Galliford and Leonard, and six saves from Tournament Most Outstanding Defensive Player Dick.
 
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.
 
The Bulldogs have kept fans on the edge of their seat through the early part of the season as all six results have been of the one-goal variety, including two overtime contests.
 
Guhl leads the Bulldogs with four goals and 10 points on the season. His four goals are third in the BIG EAST and 20^th nationally. Those are the first four goals of Guhl's collegiate career for the sophomore transfer from SMU.
 
In addition to Harvey's first career goal in the Evansville match, 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, while Usman Gil Ivern and Maurice Thompson III played the first minutes of their Butler career against the Broncos. Gil Ivern also played against Evansville.  
 
Galliford, Kieran Geldenhuys, Leonard, Bennett Kim, and Joe Moulden have started all six matches for the Bulldogs. Moulden is the only Bulldog to play all 547 minutes so far this season.
 
Lewis 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.

Suddick also earned BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 4 after picking up two goals and two assists in the adidas/IU Credit Forum Classic. He scored two goals in the Sept. 1 win over South Florida, including the game-winner, and he assisted on the game-winning goal against San Francisco as Gelendhuys put home a header off Suddick's corner kick.

Guhl took three shots in the two matches in Bloomington…and all of them found the back of the net.
 
Suddick was the second Bulldog to win the weekly honor in the first two weeks of the season as junior Jared Timmer was recognized as the Player of the Week after the first games of the 2017 season. Dick was named Goalkeeper of the Week alongside Timmer's honor.
 
Suddick, an All-BIG EAST preseason team honoree, has seven points on the season (two goals, three assists). He and Derek Sutton missed both the Western Michigan and Evansville matches. Those were in addition to Timmer and Marco Charalambous, who were lost for the season in the Louisville match Aug. 28 and while playing over the summer, respectively.

Entering the contest with Creighton, Snape has a record of 56-42-20. 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 has a full week off following the Creighton contest before traveling to Providence for a Sept. 23 match-up with the Friars. The Bulldogs have a tough road to open BIG EAST play as Providence and Creighton were the only teams picked ahead of Butler in the preseason poll as voted on by the league's head coaches. The match will air on the BIG EAST Digital Network as part of the Fox Sports Go app. Butler returns home to face St. John's on Sept. 30.