Indiana University Athletics
Men's Soccer Weekly Press Release
10/28/1997 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Men's Soccer Weekly Press Release
GAME DATA: The Indiana soccer team (16-0-0) finishes the regular season this weekend at the adidas-Foot Locker California Classic. The top-ranked Hoosiers play No. 2 Stanford (13-0-2) Friday (Oct. 31) at 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET) at San Francisco's soccer facility. IU will then play California (9-5-1) at Cal's Memorial Stadium at 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) Sunday (Nov. 2).
BIG TEN REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS AGAIN: Indiana's 2-0 victory over Ohio State Sunday clinched the Big Ten regular season title for the Hoosiers. That means they will be the No. 1 seed in the conference postseason tournament Nov. 14-16 in Bloomington. IU's perfect 5-0-0 conference record is the third time the Hoosiers have accomplished an undefeated league season since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 1991 (IU was 4-0-1 last season). This title is also Indiana's fifth regular season crown in seven years.
BEST START AND SOMETHING TO ACCOMPLISH: Indiana's 16-0-0 start ties for the best in school history which was set previously in 1978. If the Hoosiers defeat Stanford, they will set a school record with 17 straight victories. The 1978 and 1987 Hoosiers each won 16 straight. Indiana will also be gunning for a perfect regular season this weekend. Believe or not, Indiana has never gone through the regular season without a loss. The best marks to date were in 1983 and 1984 when they lost once during the regular season in each year. However, in 1983 IU had four ties and in 1984 had two more ties.
THE SERIES: The Hoosiers and Cardinal are meeting for just the fifth time on the soccer field. Indiana leads the series 2-0-2 after the teams played to a 2-2 tie in their last meeting in 1991. Indiana and California are meeting for only the second time and for the first time since 1984. IU won that previous meeting 2-1 for a 1-0-0 series advantage.
SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE VS. STANFORD: This week's matchup with Stanford has some interesting angles. First of all, the two teams are the only two undefeated teams in the nation with the Hoosiers at 16-0-0 and the Cardinal at 13-0-2. Second, there is the matchup between the Indiana offense which has scored 61 goals this season and the Cardinal defense which has allowed only three goals this season.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Indiana played only one game last week and defeated Ohio State 2-0 to claim the Big Ten regular season title. Aleksey Korol had the game-winner early on and Chris Klein added an insurance goal late in the game. The Hoosiers outshot the Buckeyes 17-6 and forced OSU goalkeeper Jon Lowery to make 11 saves. By contrast, IU's T.J. Hannig made only one save.
HOOSIERS RANKED NO. 1: Indiana is the No. 1 team in the nation this week according to all three national polls. The Hoosiers have been No. 1 for the last eight weeks in at least one poll and the consensus No. 1 team in the nation over the last seven weeks.
HOOSIERS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: A number of Hoosiers appear in this week's national individual rankings. Dema Kovalenko is sixth in the nation in goals with 16 and is seventh in points with 35. However, he is the top player in both of those categories of players who play on a Top 25 team. T.J. Hannig is sixth in goals against average at 0.60 while Yuri Lavrinenko is tied for 12th with nine assists.
INDIANA HEAD COACH JERRY YEAGLEY: The Indiana mentor is in his 25th year at the helm of the Hoosiers. He has a career record of 428-77-37. He has led the Hoosiers to national titles in 1982, 1983 and 1988, 10 Final Four appearances and five Big Ten titles.
THE RKS KLUB: Senior Chris Klein and sophomore Aleksey Korol have been scoring at a fevered pace over the last few weeks. Klein has completely re-written his career bests as he now has 9-8-26 on the season. His three previous seasons combined to total only 8-8-24. He is the team's second-leading scorer. Korol has scored the game-winner in each of the last three games and now has 10 goals on the season. He is third on the team in points with a career-high 25 (10-5) and is second with 44 shots. He has set career-bests in goals, points, and shots, and is one assist short of last season's total of six.
ALUMNI GAME TIME AND DATE CHANGE: The annual Alumni game, originally scheduled for Sunday, November 9, has been changed to Saturday, November 8 at 7 p.m.
HITTING THE BOOKS: Two Hoosiers jumped into the Indiana record book recently as Dema Kovalenko and Lazo Alavanja each hit the Top 20 in either points or goals. Alavanja's 18 points this season give him 60 for his career, good for 20th all-time. Kovalenko has 57 points overall, and is tied for 21st all-time. Kovalenko has scored 16 goals this season, giving him 26 for his career (16th all-time). Alavanja scored his 20th career goal against Northwestern and needs one more goal to crack the Top 20.
BIG TEN'S BEST: This season marks the seventh year of Big Ten soccer and the Hoosiers have been the class of the league in the previous six years. IU is 29-4-2 in Big Ten competition and has won or shared five of the six conference titles.
INDIANA NOTEBOOK: The Hoosiers have scored 61 goals this season, three more than last season's total of 58. That total is the most since the Hoosiers scored 63 in 1994. With at least four games left this season, IU is on track to score 80 goals for just the sixth time in school history. Indiana could have as many as 10 games left, giving them a projected goal total of 98, four more than the school record of 94, set in 1976. Dema Kovalenko set a career high with his third assist against Northwestern. Kovalenko had a season-high eight shots against Wisconsin, the most by a Hoosier since Aleksey Korol's eight shots against Marquette last season. The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents 61-10 so far this season. The 10 goals allowed is the lowest total since 1993 and 1994 when the Hoosiers gave up 13. Over the last 11 games, Indiana has not allowed more than six shots in any one game. The Indiana defense has been stingy lately as Hoosier Tkeepers have made just nine saves over the last eight games. On that same front, the Hoosiers are on pace to set a new school record for fewest goalkeeper saves in a season. The record is 50 set previously but so far this year IU Tkeepers have only 27 through 16 games. Caleb Porter should be back in action this week after basically missing the last two games with a knee injury and a yellow card suspension. IU opponents have received 40 yellow cards this season, while IU has just 20.
NEXT UP: The Hoosiers play only an exhibition game next week as they play a team of Indiana alumni Saturday (Nov. 8) at 7 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Please note the date and time change on this game.
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