Indiana University Women’s Soccer hosts Morehead State and travels to Evansville
The Indiana women’s soccer team hosts Morehead State tonight at Bill Armstrong Stadium before they travel to Evansville for their first road trip of the season on Sunday Evening. The first 300 fans will receive an Indiana women’s soccer t-shirt before the 8pm match time with the Eagles with the Evansville game slated for a 7pm start on Sunday. B1G+ will provide Alex Hynes (PxP) and Garrett Drake (Analyst) will be on the call for Tonight’s match and the match against the Aces will be livestreamed on ESPN+.
The Indiana women’s soccer team (1-0-1) battled Virginia Tech (1-0-1), to a nil-nil draw at Bill Armstrong Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Virginia Tech struck early in the third minute as they got a shot off in the 18-yard box, but junior goalkeeper Jamie Gerstenberg was there for the save. The defenses continued to battle it out as Indiana took the next four shots, two of them blocked by the Hokies’ backline. In the 24th minute, Virginia Tech sent a cross inside the box just in time for freshman forward Samantha DeGuzman to send one down the middle as Gerstenberg scooped up her second save. The Hoosiers saw their first chance from freshman midfielder Kennedy Neighbors. She dribbled the ball just inside the 18-yard box, striking the bottom left of the net before the Hokies’ keeper made the save. In the 79th minute, graduate forward Paige Webber got a shot off right inside the penalty box after she dribbled past the Hokies defender to find a gap, but senior keeper Alia Skinner would make the save.
Morehead State (1-1) is coming off a 5-2 win over Detroit Mercy after the fell 3-0 against Marshall in their season opener. Fifth-year midfielder Kate Larbes leads the Eagles offense with two goals. She has tallied six shots, four of those being on goal and holds .667 shots on goal percentage. Sophomore keeper Erin Gibbs has totaled 180 minutes between the posts with a total of eight saves on the year. She posts a .615 save percentage. The Eagles are led by head coach Chris Fox who is in his second season. In 2022, Fox led Morehead State to seven wins, four in conference play for the best finish since 2015. The Hoosiers lead the series against the Eagles, 1-0. The teams last saw each other in 2019 after IU scored five goals in a shutout win.
Evansville (0-0-1) is set to play Southeast Missouri State tonight on the road before facing the Hoosiers. The Aces opened the season on the road where they battled Mercer to a nil-nil draw. Senior goalkeeper Myia Danek notched a career-high 10 saves. Freshman Forward Taylor Johnson made her collegiate debut for the UE and leads the squad with three shots and one on goal. Chris Pfau is in his fourth season as the head coach at Evansville. He led the Aces to their best start in program history in 2021 with a 7-5-7 overall record. UE finished the season 2-9-5 and ended with a 3-1 win over Illinois State. Indiana leads the series 5-1-1 against Evansville. The squads last competed on Aug. 19, 2011, where the teams went into overtime before it was declared a draw, 2-2.
Second ranked Indiana University Men’s Soccer opens regular season at Notre Dame Indiana men’s soccer renews its hopes for a ninth star. Coming off its record 22nd trip to the NCAA College Cup, the Hoosiers kick off their 2023 season on Thursday against in-state rival Notre Dame in South Bend. Kickoff is set for 8:30pm – adjusted from its original 8 p.m. start. Fans can stream the match on the ACCNX digital platform.
Indiana returns two of its top scorers, experienced members of its defensive third and its favored midfield pairing while bringing in a talented group of freshmen and experienced transfer defender Hugo Bacharach. Juniors Samuel Sarver and Patrick McDonald and freshman Collins Oduro were named Big Ten Players to Watch in the conference’s season preview. Bacharach and Oduro each were named to Top Drawer Soccer’s best XI lists, with Bacharach earning second-team honors and Oduro receiving a freshman team selection. IU is 107-14-7 (.863) all-time against opponents from its home state. The Hoosiers have not lost to a team from the state of Indiana since 2019. Notre Dame finished its 2022 season 8-7-2 with a 3-4-1 record in conference play. The Irish is led by sixth-year head coach Chad Riley, who has compiled a 51-36-11 record at Maryland and a 102-62-25 career record over 11 seasons. Senior Daniel Russo returns after leading the team in scoring last season with six goals and four assists, totaling 16 points.
Indiana has historically dominated the all-time series, owning a 33-10-3 record against the Fighting Irish. Indiana’s first-ever varsity match was a 5-1 victory in South Bend. The Hoosiers then won 11 straight matchups to kick off a series that has been renewed 45 times. More recently, the two teams have met in 21 of the last 22 seasons, only missing the unique 2020-21 campaign due to IU’s conference-only schedule. In that span, the programs have met 24 times. In IU’s last trip to South Bend – the opening match of the 2021 season – Tommy Mihalic scored a brace in his collegiate debut before Ben Yeagley gave the Hoosiers the overtime, 3-2 victory with a golden goal scored from outside the box.
Indiana University Football names team captains for the 2023 season Tom Allen announced Wednesday that Noah Pierre, Aaron Casey, Mike Katic, Cam Camper and Andre Carter will be Indiana’s Team Captains for the 2023 season. “Really excited to have those five guys represent our program in that role,” Allen said in weekly press conference. “Very well deserving … A really, really awesome group of young men that I’m excited to lead our team.”
Indiana’s team captains for 2023 represent a mix of program veterans and newcomers. Defensive lineman Andre Carter transferred from Western Michigan to Indiana this offseason, but he was quick to establish a leadership role upon arrival. Carter was the team’s defensive MVP of spring practice, and Allen has consistently mentioned him as a standout player throughout fall camp. He was recently named to the Bednarik Award preseason watch list, which is given to the best defensive player in college football. Carter boasts five years of experience at Western Michigan, where he made 68 tackles with a team-high 13.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks last season on his way to second-team All-MAC honors. “Having Andre coming in here in January and just earning the respect of his teammates by his work ethic and his performances during our practices and spring ball and the way he’s worked,” Allen said.
Camper joined the Hoosiers before the 2022 season as a transfer from Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. The 6-foot-2 wide receiver had a breakout season for the Hoosiers, leading the team with 46 receptions and 569 receiving yards despite playing just seven games. His 156 receiving yards in Indiana’s Week 1 win over Illinois set a program record for receiving yards in an Indiana debut. Despite tearing his ACL during Indiana’s loss at Rutgers on Oct. 22, Allen expects Camper to be a Week 1 starter against Ohio State. Camper wore a blue non-contact jersey during some fall camp practices, but Allen said Camper has recently had the chance to be tackled during practice. “Cam Camper to me is just a picture of resilience and grit and toughness,” Allen said. “Camper is doing a great job. I feel like he’s ready to go … Any time you have a guy like that, you have a pitch-count mentality. But in regard to when he’s out there, he should be full bore.”
The remaining three captains have been mainstays at Indiana for years. Katic has started 21 games at left guard and four games at center for Indiana, and Allen said he’s continued to improve every year as he steps into a leadership role. Casey and Pierre were true freshmen during the 2018 season, and they’ve steadily grown into key roles on Indiana’s defense. Starting 11 games in 2022, Casey led Indiana with 86 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss on his way to earning third-team All-Big Ten honors by Pro Football Focus. Casey has played both middle linebacker spots, and his veteran presence should be a stabilizing force on defense due to the significant roster turnover. “[Casey] didn’t have a very good 2021 season but had a chance to come back and really had everything elevated in 2022, especially when Cam Jones went down and we lost him,” Allen said. “[Casey] was really forced into a leadership role and more pressure on him to make plays. ”
Pierre didn’t make his first start until his fourth year in the program in 2021 against Michigan State, when he made nine tackles and an interception. Allen said Pierre is a very emotional and passionate player, which is infectious for everyone around him. Pierre is expected to play Husky for Indiana in 2023, a hybrid safety and linebacker position. Allen is proud of the perseverance Casey and Pierre have shown throughout their long Hoosier careers. “Just to see that growth and to see two young men that came here and had been in this program for a long time and are now being rewarded with being captains, that’s one of the greatest honors you can be given is being voted by your teammates, by your peers to be in that role,” Allen said. “So I’m just so excited for them. They represent us in a high-level way, on the field, off the field. Both graduates already, just first-class people, hard, hard workers, just tough. And they make plays, and they’ve had to be patient, had to wait, had to have a lot of grit and perseverance and passion toward a long-term goal. That’s the definition for grit that we use, and they’re two pictures of that to me.”
Two Indiana University Men’s Soccer Newcomers named to the Top-Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XI lists Two Indiana men’s soccer newcomers featured in Top Drawer Soccer (TDS) Preseason Best XI lists on Wednesday. Senior defender Hugo Bacharach was a second-team selection and first-year forward Collins Oduro was named to the freshman team. Bacharach was also rated the No. 22 player in the country by TDS.
Six-foot-4 Bacharach transferred to IU after three seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson, where he was a first-team All-Northeast Conference performer all three years and the NEC Defensive Player of the Year as a junior. Bacharach played for USL League Two’s Flint City Bucks this summer and was named the USL League Two Defender of the Year. Oduro joins Indiana after a senior season at The Phelps School in Philadelphia where he was named Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year, scoring 39 goals and adding a pair of assists.
Three Indiana University Field Hockey players named to the Big Ten Preseason watch list The Big Ten Conference announced its preseason Players to Watch List ahead of the 2023 season’s start on Friday. Indiana’s Syndey Keld, Sarah Charley and Sofia Arrebola Garica were all recognized on the list. Keld is entering her redshirt senior season and building off of a breakout junior year. Her 2022 campaign included 12 defensive saves, which was the most in NCAA Division I Field Hockey for the year and broke a school record, to go along with six goals and three assists.
Charley joins the Hoosiers for her final year of eligibility after playing four seasons at Ohio State. Charley is coming off a fantastic 2022 with the Buckeyes where she had a team-high 12 goals and two assists. Over the course of her career in Columbus, Charley notched 25 goals and eight assists. Arrebola Garcia will be a junior this season. As a sophomore, she had the second-most goals on the team with five and also had two assists. The Hoosiers will open the season this weekend with road games at No. 20 Duke on Friday at 7pm and No. 14 Liberty on Sunday at 11am.
Two Indiana University Football players on the Comeback Player watch list Indiana quarterback Dexter Williams II and wide receiver Cam Camper have been named to the 2023 College Football Comeback Player of the Year preseason watch list. The award recognizes college football student-athletes for overcoming injury, illness or other circumstances, according to the official College Football Comeback Player of the Year website.
Williams II started the final two games of the season for Indiana in 2022, including the team’s 39-31 double overtime win over Michigan State. Then a redshirt freshman, he started against Purdue as well, but unfortunately suffered a non-contact injury late in the first quarter with the Hoosiers leading 7-3. It was later revealed to be a torn ACL in Williams II’s right knee. Prior to the Purdue game, Williams II was expected to be the day one starter in Bloomington for the 2023 season. Coach Tom Allen gave an update on Williams II’s injury on Aug. 9, and said that the quarterback was “further along” in his recovery than the team had originally expected him to be. “[Dexter Williams II] just had his final check-up prior to fall camp, and it came back very positive,” Allen said. “And so, from that meeting that he had with his doctors, we felt like we could accelerate things for fall camp, and so he’s been out there taking reps.”
As for Camper, he burst onto the scene for Indiana in 2022 as the team’s most dangerous pass catching threat. He set a new program record for receiving yards in a debut performance, hauling in 11 receptions for 156 yards in a 23-20 win over Illinois in his first game as a Hoosier. In just seven games last season, Camper tallied 46 receptions for 569 yards and two touchdowns. Camper’s 2022 season ended in Piscataway, as he suffered a torn ACL in Indiana’s 24-17 loss to Rutgers. The standout wide receiver gave media an injury update back on Aug. 7, saying that he plans to be at a “full go” for the team’s week one matchup with Ohio State. “That’s the plan, to be full go at the start of the season,” Camper said. “But right now, I’m going through practice as I would if I was not injured. I just think every day I’m taking good strides, and I’m just focusing on making sure my technique is good.”
In 2022, one of the three winners of the College Football Comeback Player of the Year Award winners was former Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. who starred at IU from 2018-21, leading the Hoosiers to two of the best seasons in school history in 2019 and 2020. He suffered several injuries during his time in Bloomington and transferred to Washington following the 2021 season. Once again playing under Kalen DeBoer former Indiana offensive coordinator during the 2019 season and current head coach at Washington Penix Jr. thrived. The dynamic lefty quarterback threw for 4,641 yards and 31 touchdowns while leading the Huskies to an 11-2 record and a No. 8 finish in the AP poll rankings.
The College Football Comeback Player of the Year Award was first handed out in 2018 and has been given to three winners in each season since its conception. Only two Big Ten players have won the award Minnesota’s Mohamed Ibrahim in 2022, and Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson in 2021. If either of Williams II or Camper is selected as one of the winners at the end of the 2023 season, they would be the first Indiana football player achieve that feat.
