For the fourth straight year, Flames Field will be the site of a conference tournament match when #4 UIC hosts #5 Belmont in a Missouri Valley quarterfinal.  Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, and admission will be free.

The Flames and Bruins tied in the final standings, befitting the result of the match they played during the regular season.  UIC won the tiebreaker, and hosting rights, thanks to their superior goal differential in conference matches.  Though they lost their regular season finale at Drake, UIC had won its two previous matches by a combined score of 8-2.

Josh Torres finished as the team's leader, and second in the Valley, in goals, with eight.  The Flames also have a top-five assist man in the conference, in Christian Crespo (4).  A trio of Flames tied for second on the team with three goals.  Included in that group is Andres Moreno, who scored on a beautiful header against Drake, and Paul Brauckmann, whose three tallies have all come in the last four games.

The Flames are near the top of the conference in most offensive categories.  Their 1.7 goals per game, 1.4 assists per game, 15.8 shots and 5.8 shots on goal per game all rank second in the Valley.  Pau Mateo joins Torres in the top 10 of several attacking statistics as well.

Belmont has not lost in their last four matches (1-0-3), and drew with regular season champion Missouri State in that span.  Liam O'Brien scored five goals to lead the team, with Case Cox right behind him with four.  Nate Logan stopped 75% of the shots he saw, and posted six shutouts.

The teams played to an entertaining 3-3 draw on October 1 in Nashville.  The Bruins scored twice in the first 17 minutes, but UIC stormed back to take a 3-2 lead by the 59^th minute.  Aaron Nguyen, Torres, and Mateo scored, with Brian Perez contributing two assists.  However, Cox made it a hat trick in the 89^th minute, and though each team had a quality chance in the final seconds, the match ended in a draw.

The winner of Sunday's quarterfinal will advance to the semifinal round November 10 at the home of #1 seed Missouri State.  The bracket will be reseeded for the semis.  Sunday's match can be seen on ESPN+.