With their 1-1 record in tow, the Long Beach State women’s soccer team hits the road for the first time this season as it heads to the Midwest for a pair of matches.

The 49ers open the weekend at Kansas on Friday with kickoff set for 3pm (our time). LBSU will then travel by bus to the campus of No. 21 Missouri for an 8am (again, our time) showdown on Sunday.

This will mark Long Beach State’s first all-time meeting against both Kansas and Missouri, and coach Mauricio Ingrassia knows his young team will have their hands full.  “These are teams that play quality soccer… we’re really going to have to come with our best effort.”

Kansas enters Friday’s match-up with a 3-0 record as it defeated Pepperdine and Arizona State at the Lady Vol Invite in Knoxville, Tenn., last weekend. Junior defender and Long Beach native Lauren Jackson (Poly) was tabbed the tournament MVP after anchoring a Jayhawk defense that allowed just one goal in 180 minutes of action.

Missouri (2-1-0) is coming off a split as it defeated Northwestern, 2-0, before falling to DePaul, 1-0, last weekend. Senior forward Michelle Collins has paced the Tiger offense with two goals, while senior goalkeeper Tasha Dittamore has seen all the action between the posts, recording a 1.00 goals against average and an .812 save percentage.

A big story this weekend will be the arrival of newest transfer Nicole Sweetman (click here for the full story on Sweetman).  Ingrassia plans on playing Sweetman on Friday, but she will not start.  Ingrassia and this team knows they need another weapon up top, and Sweetman could be that answer.  However, she is coming off an injury and will need to gain the trust of her teammates as quickly as possible, for her own and the team’s sake.

Come back to LBPostSports this weekend for all the reports on this soccer roadie.