Indiana Soccer Revisits No. 2 Notre Dame Saturday Night In NCAA Elite Eight

Indiana men's soccer has won eight straight matches and faces No. 2 Notre Dame Saturday night in the season-opener rematch. The Hoosiers have reached 20 more College Cups than Notre Dame and look to add their NCAA-record No. 23.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Todd Yeagley says he can sense it miles away. Teams may have talent, and they’ll win matches, but they won’t go the distance with splintered team chemistry and culture. Yeagley didn’t target any programs with that statement Wednesday afternoon. Rather, the successor knows he is fortunate. Indiana has made the College Cup four times in the past six seasons.

Indiana has been winning for decades. The Hoosiers have contended for 22 College Cups since 1973 — 44% of the time. They’ll look for an NCAA-record-extending 23rd appearance Saturday at No. 2 Notre Dame in the quarterfinals. The Fighting Irish have made two College Cups, in 2013 and 2021, winning their sole title in 2013. Notre Dame has reached six quarterfinals. Indiana has advanced past the quarters five times in only Yeagley's 14-year tenure.

The last time Indiana and Notre Dame met in the postseason was 2018 — the Elite Eight (quarterfinals) in Bloomington — which drew 5,159 fans who witnessed an Indiana shutout. That stands as Indiana's most-attended match, since. Bill Armstrong Stadium's listed capacity doubles Notre Dame's stadium. The Hoosiers have yet to lose to the Irish in six meetings since 2017, winning four. They’ve dominated the series. This is in-state David and Goliath.

But toss history out the window. The present is what matters for an Indiana squad, which has more than righted the ship months following their mediocre start to the season — which coincidentally was at Notre Dame in the season-opener. Both sides drew 1-1 back in August. Leaders for Indiana have risen in the last month: defender Jansen Miller, goalkeeper JT Harms, midfielder Patrick McDonald getting his voice, and the reserved forward lead-by-example "Mr. November," Maouloune Goumballe.

Indiana has won eight consecutive matches and 12 of the last 13. Goumballe has posted five goals to go along with three assists in the streak’s span and didn’t score in 15 matches prior to Oct. 27. He had the lone assist to the goal-scoring freshman Collins Oduro in Indiana’s 1-0 win at No. 7 Virginia in the Sweet 16. Plenty of Hoosiers this postseason have made great contributions to get here. The question now is, who is going to be the team’s Mr. December?

“That’s earned,” Yeagley said. “I asked Maouloune today if he’d like to double-up. I said, ‘You can be two months in the calendar,’ and he got a chuckle out of that. That’s another program tradition that we need Mr. November. If you don’t have a Mr. November, you may not be going as far as you’d hoped, cause someone has to step up in some capacity and Maouloune was the epitome … who was doing well for us, but just absolutely took November and swallowed it up.”

Notre Dame’s leading scorers Matthew Roou and Eno Nto have 10 goals. The team-leader in assists, freshman KK Baffour, won’t be eligible to play Saturday due to his red card in the previous postseason match. Baffour assisted the Fighting Irish goal when the Hoosiers went to South Bend and drew in August. And though veteran goalkeeper Bryan Dowd and the Irish backline conceded four goals to Louisville Nov. 5, they haven’t allowed any since in two NCAA Tournament matches.

The in-state quarterfinal showdown kicks at 5 p.m. ET Saturday and will air on ESPN-plus.

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