The nonconference season always looms large for St. Louis University. With the right win or two in those games, SLU doesn’t necessarily need to win the Atlantic 10 tournament to secure an NCAA tournament berth.

SLU, ranked 24th, let one chance get away when it couldn’t convert its chances against Indiana, at the moment the top-ranked team in the nation, on Sept. 3 and it did it again on Friday night, playing to a 0-0 tie with ninth-ranked Portland at Hermann Stadium. It was the first regular-season game at Hermann Stadium between two top 25 teams since 2013.

SLU (3-1-2) does have a win over Southern Methodist when it was ranked fifth, but SMU has since fallen out of the top 25. In its three toughest games so far, SLU has a win, a loss and a tie.

“Performance wise, if you kind of look at

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