Men’s soccer teams from the Missouri Valley Conference have gone head-to-head with some of the country’s best in the early weeks of the season and held their own.

The list of quality teams the MVC has played includes Stanford, the No. 1 team in the nation, and 10 other schools that are ranked in the Top 25 National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Adidas poll.

The MVC has posted a 35-29-7 overall record against out-of-conference competition. The number might appear to be mediocre, but six of the ten MVC teams have winning percentages well above .500.

Southern Methodist, Bradley, and Creighton all boast Top 25 national rankings and are a combined 16-3-4 on the year.

Southern Methodist, ranked sixth in the most recent NSCAA poll, have a 5-1-1 record with its only loss coming to Stanford. Head coach Schellas Hnydman sees his pre-conference schedule as a measuring stick.

“I think the (non-conference) games are a huge reality check, especially when you are playing a good team,” Hnydman said. “They expose weaknesses and it helps a coach out a lot. Usually you only see strengths or only weaknesses in a game, but when you play a great team you see both.”

Bradley, unbeaten after eight games with a 6-0-2 record and ranked 12th in the nation, posted the conference’s biggest victory of the season, a 2-1 win over previously fifth-ranked Notre Dame. Creighton is ranked 20th in the polls and has a 5-2-1 record. Tulsa, which recently dropped from the Top 25 after a 3-0 loss to Oregon State, has a 5-2-0 record and recently defeated in-state rival, Oral Roberts.

But all the coaches, regardless of the level of success, are only taking positives from their pre-conference schedule.

“Obviously I am not happy with the results so far,” said Tim McClements, head coach of 1-6-0 Vanderbilt. “But we’re making good progress in areas that we need to make them in.”

Other coaches prefer to view the non-conference schedule as preparation for MVC play which begins on Oct. 4.

“We have played a very difficult schedule so far,” said Tom McIntosh, current Tulsa head coach and former Eastern coach from 1996 to 1999. “We have already played four teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year and these games will only help us prepare for the MVC season.”

Western Kentucky (4-2-1) and Evansville (4-2-2) have also gotten off to good starts, but Drake and Eastern have identical 2-4-0 records. The Panthers were picked to finish last in the MVC in the pre-season polls, but head coach Adam Howarth has higher aspirations for his team.

“We’d certainly like to make as much noise as we can (in the MVC),” Howarth said. “I think we’re more than capable of finishing in the top four and at the very least we’d like to get into the conference tournament.”

There have been a number of surprises and disappointments in the early portions of the season.

Southwest Missouri State, pre-season choice to finish third in the MVC in a coaches poll, has gone 1-7.

“We have played a good schedule and seen some strong teams,” Bears head coach Jon Leamy said about his team that has played Top 25 opponents in Notre Dame and UC-Santa Barbara. “But we haven’t been able to get over the hump. We have made some dumb errors, but only one of our seven losses (a 4-1 loss to UCSB) has been more than one goal.”

Despite a strong 4-2-2 start, Evansville has been without the services of two of its top players Dan Brucks and Jean-Yves Furcom who are both out for the season. Injuries have taken such a toll on the Purple Aces that when head coach Fred Schmalz was asked which players were injured, he replied, “who hasn’t been.”

The vacancy that Brucks and Furcom left has been filled by freshman Marc Burch, a high school all-american, who is tied for second in the MVC in assists and tied for sixth in points per game.

With three teams currently in the Top 25 and a fourth (Tulsa) on the cusp, the MVC appears to be as strong as it was two years ago when it sent two teams to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

“The MVC is such a tough conference because there are no easy games,” McIntosh said. “You have to be pretty tough if you want to survive the next four to five week grind.”