Indiana Soccer Beats Lipscomb 2-1 In NCAA Tournament, Goumballe and Oduro Both Score

Indiana hosted Lipscomb in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday night. This was unfamiliar territory; since 2013, it's had top-16 national seeds and first-round byes. As always, the Hoosiers won their opening contest.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Collins Oduro and Maouloune Goumballe. Freshman versus the nation's active leader in appearances. Goal-dormant versus “Mr. November.” Two forwards who scored in the NCAA Tournament 2-1 win over Lipscomb Thursday. And two Hoosiers who preserved the program’s nine-season streak of winning their opening Tournament match.

For the previous nine seasons, Indiana was one of the top-16 national seeds in the 48-team NCAA Tournament and had a first-round bye. Regular-season success in that span meant that the Hoosiers had more comfortable paths to the Sweet 16, which the program has reached eight straight times. This season is an outlier. The Hoosiers went unseeded. They didn’t lose their postseason lessons.

Indiana is automatic in opening Tournament matches, whether it's to reach the Sweet 16 following the team’s first-round bye or playing in the Round of 48. It has made eight consecutive Sweet 16’s and the Final Four four times in the last six seasons.

“We have a lot of experience in the locker room that have won a lot of tournament games,” Yeagley said post-match. “So that's what I talk about. When we had matchups that we had tonight as [Brett] Bebej faced those, absolutely. He's gone against some amazing wingers in the last four years in our runs because he's been in obviously a couple [of] finals.”

Bebej and Indiana’s backline, which consists of another four-year Hoosier in captain Joey Maher, recent everyday starter Jansen Miller, and freshman Alex Barger, were tasked with guarding Lipscomb’s dynamic three-headed attack in Tyrese Spicer, Malachi Jones and Ploutarchos Alonefti. Spicer posted 13 goals this year, and the latter two are tied for the most assists in the nation with 12. Spicer buried his 14th goal unassisted in the 84th minute. 

But by then, Oduro and Goumballe had done their damage. In the 32nd minute, the rookie dribbled beside his defender in the attacking third. His zipped strike ricocheted off the hands of backup Lipscomb goalkeeper Harrison Gough. It marked Oduro’s first goal since the regular-season finale victory to win the conference title. Gough played for Lipscomb Thursday because the team’s starting keeper, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, was red-carded in the team's previous match and was suspended for the next.

In the 74th minute, one of Lipscomb’s defenders attempted to box-out Goumballe at the end line to ensure the goal-kick. Instead, Goumballe got around and tapped the ball to keep it in bounds as it danced on the end line. Goumballe flew past another defender and scored, the veteran’s fourth postseason goal in as many matches.

“No,” Goumballe replied, when asked if he thought to cross the ball to teammates.

“Biggest thing with us is that we defend with 11,” Maher said. “It's easier to do our jobs when we have our forwards and our midfielders working their tail off for us. That gives us the utmost confidence as a backline that we're gonna be able to get the job done as a team collectively.”

Since the national seeds host, Thursday was probably Maher’s final time at Bill Armstrong Stadium unless there are mass upsets in Indiana’s quadrant of the bracket. He said his time here has been unreal, and listed former players in the program who brought him under their wings. It’s what Indiana does. Reload talent and win in the postseason.

Indiana will travel to play at No. 10 seed Wake Forest at 5 p.m. ET Sunday. 

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