Indiana Soccer Falls Short of National Seed, Hosts Lipscomb in NCAA Tournament
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Sunday's Big Ten Tournament championship victory put Indiana in the conversation for a top-16 national seed, but the Hoosiers fell just short.
Instead of earning a first-round bye, Indiana will host Lipscomb in the NCAA Tournament Round of 48 on Thursday. The Hoosiers were the lone Big Ten Team to get in. The winner of that match will travel to play No. 10 seed Wake Forest on Sunday. Game times for these matches have not been announced.
This marks the first time in 10 seasons that Indiana has not received a top-16 seed and first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament.
“There was some disappointment in the room, but I don't actually mind that,” Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said Monday. “Whether they deserve it or not, I don't mind a little bit of like, okay, who wants to get in front of us right now. And that's really the feel of the group. Like who wants to play us right now? And it's a real confident group. Not arrogant, but confident.”
Nine teams from either the ACC or Sun Belt received national seeds. The four nationally-seeded teams Indiana would encounter on the way to the Elite Eight are all from the ACC, including No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 15 Duke, No. 7 Virginia, and No. 10 Wake Forest.
The Hoosiers have won nine of their past 10 matches, following their mediocre 3-4-4 opening to the season, which likely stunted their hopes of earning a national seed.
Like Indiana, Lipscomb secured the Atlantic Sun Conference Double. Lipscomb was the No. 9 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament — Indiana the No. 13 — but the Bisons lost their first match.
Lipscomb has contended for three consecutive NCAA tournaments now, but it hasn’t been able to get past its opening match and looks to break that streak. Indiana starkly has contended for 37 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, reaching the Round of 16 in the past eight seasons and the College Cup four times in the last six.
“There are, in particular, some guys on this team that have been to a couple of championship games,” Yeagley said. “They just want to get back to it. They can't go fix what we didn't get done, and they're very proud of what they did. But they want a taste of it. They want to be in that game. They want to be in the Final Four. It just drives you. It's craziness how much you want it.”
The quest for nine begins.
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