Indiana University Athletics
Men's Soccer Weekly Press Release
12/2/1997 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Men's Soccer Weekly Press Release
GAME DATA: The Indiana soccer team (22-0-0) continues its quest for a fourth national title this Sunday against South Florida. The game will be played at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the IU campus and will begin at 2 p.m. EST.
RADIO: All of Indiana's games in the NCAA Tournament will be broadcast on Bloomington's WGCL (AM 1370). Chris Doran handles the play-by-play with former Indiana All-America and College Soccer Player of the Year Todd Yeagley adding commentary.
HOOSIERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Indiana is in its 22nd NCAA appearance which now ties the Hoosiers for the fourth-highest mark in NCAA history. The Hoosiers have the second best winning percentage in NCAA history at .710 (44-18). IU has won the title three times PJ1982, 1983 & 1988 P which is the fourth best mark in NCAA history. Indiana's 44 tournament victories is second on the all-time list as is its 10 Final Four appearances. The Hoosiers are 35-3 at home in NCAA play. Last season the Hoosiers defeated Evansville (4-0) and Bowling Green (2-0) at home before losing at Florida International (1-0) in the national quarterfinals. Indiana's last appearance in the Final Four was in 1994 when the Hoosiers lost to Virginia 1-0.
HOOSIERS "BOWL" A STRIKE: IU pulled off a repeat of last season's performance, defeating Bowling Green, 4-0 to advance to the third round of the NCAAs. Forward Dema Kovalenko scored the Hoosiers' first two goals, the first just 1:58 into the game and the second at the 70:03 mark as IU posted its 12th shutout of the season. Indiana also received goals from Lazo Alavanja and Matt Fundenberger as they outshot the Falcons 21-7. Kovalenko's two goals give him 20 on the year, the first time a Hoosier has accomplished that feat since 1989 (Ken Snow).
IU ADVANCES IN OT: Indiana advanced to the second round of the NCAA's with a thrilling 2-1 triple overtime victory over Butler. Lazo Alavanja scored in the ninth minute for a 1-0 Indiana lead. IU appeared on its way to victory until Butler's Craig Donaldson scored from 40 yards out in the 82nd minute to tie the game. The teams remained tied at 1-1 through the first 30 minutes of overtime before starting to play sudden death. Matt Fundenberger headed home a Nick Garcia cross in the 124th minute for the victory. Indiana outshot the Bulldogs 18-5 and held an edge in corner kicks 7-2.
ALAVANJA NAMED MAC FINALIST: Junior midfielder Lazo Alavanja was named one of four finalists for the Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year Award. Alavanja joins forward Johnny Torres of Creighton, midfielder Daniel Hernandez of SMU and defender Leo Cullen of Maryland.
ADD FINALISTS: The Hoosiers also have two of the finalists for the nation's other Player of the Year award. The Hermann Trophy, awarded to the nation's top player, will be presented at the Final Four in Richmond, Virginia. Sophomore forward Dema Kovalenko and senior midfielder Caleb Porter were both named finalists for the award last week.
AGAINST THE FIELD: Indiana won all five games it played against teams in this year's field before the game against Butler last Sunday. The Hoosiers defeated Butler, Bowling Green, Stanford, Clemson and Rutgers.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Indiana defeated Bowling Green for the second straight year in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Hoosiers beat the Falcons, 2-0 before falling to Florida International in the third round.
CAN IT BE DONE? 25 IN THE 25th: As the Hoosiers enter the NCAA Tournament they have a chance to go undefeated and untied if they were to win the title. Indiana is now 2-0-0 and by winning the next three games necessary to win the title, the Hoosiers would finish 25-0-0 in head coach Jerry Yeagley's 25th year. This is the 39th NCAA Soccer Tournament and there have been only six previous team that have gone through the entire season undefeated and untied and captured the title. The last to do it was Howard in 1974 at 19-0-0. Others to accomplish this were West Chester in 1961 (12-0-0), Navy in 1964 (15-0-0), Saint Louis in 1965 (14-0-0) and 1969 (13-0-0) and Howard in 1971 (15-0-0). There have been seven other teams that have gone undefeated but have had at least one tie. The last undefeated, but tied, team to win the title was San Francisco in 1980 (24-0-2). Jerry Yeagley played at West Chester and was part of the 1961 team.
INDIANA HEAD COACH JERRY YEAGLEY: The Indiana mentor is in his 25th year at the helm of the Hoosiers. He was selected last week as the 1997 Big Ten Coach of the Year. He has a career record of 433-77-37. He has led IU to national titles in 1982, 1983 and 1988, 10 Final Four appearances and either a Big Ten postseason tournament or regular season title in each of the seven years the conference has sponsored soccer.
INDIANA WINS BIG TEN TOURNAMENT: Indiana advanced to the NCAAs by winning the Big Ten Tournament. IU defeated Penn State 4-0 in the semifinals and then knocked-off Ohio State 1-0 in the final. The tournament title was Indiana's sixth in seven years. Indiana won five previous tournaments and was declared co-champions once (1995) giving the school six titles in seven years. All-time in the conference tournament the Hoosiers are 11-1-1 (the tie was decided by penalty kicks which the Hoosiers won 3-2). The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents in tournament play 29-7.
BIG TEN REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS AGAIN: Indiana was also the conference's regular season champion. IU's perfect 5-0-0 conference record was the third time the Hoosiers have accomplished an undefeated and untied league season since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 1991 (IU was 4-0-1 last season). This title is also Indiana's sixth regular season crown in seven years. Indiana is the only team to win both the regular season and postseason tournament in the same year and they have done it three times P 1991, 1996 & 1997. .
ALL-BIG TEN IS ALL(MOST)-INDIANA: The Big Ten announced its all-conference teams during the postseason tournament and it looked quite like the Indiana starting lineup. Eight Hoosiers earned first team honors while another was a second team selection. Aleksey Korol, Dema Kovalenko, Lazo Alavanja, Chris Klein, Yuri Lavrinenko, Caleb Porter, Nick Garcia and Andy Parrish were all first team picks while Gino DiGuardi was the second team pick. Alavanja was the conference's Player of the Year, Garcia was the Freshman of the Year and Coach Jerry Yeagley was the Coach of the Year.
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 13 weeks in at least one poll and the consensus No. 1 team in the nation over the last 12 weeks.
THE SERIES: Indiana and South Florida are meeting for just the third time on the soccer field. The series is tied, 1-1, with the Hoosiers winning at Tampa in 1993, 3-1. IU fell to the Bulls, 3-1 in their final regular season game in 1984.
HOOSIERS RECORD PERFECT REGULAR SEASON: Indiana finished the regular season with a perfect 18-0-0 regular season. This perfect mark beats the previous best start in school history which was 16-0-0 in 1978. Indiana's 21-game winning streak is now the longest in school history breaking the mark of 16 set in 1978 and 1987. Believe or not, this is the first time in school history Indiana has 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.
TRIUMPHANT TRIO: The Ukrainian trio of Dema Kovalenko, Aleksey Korol and Yuri Lavrinenko have accounted for almost half of the Hoosiers goals this season (37 of 77). At least one of the three has scored in every game, with the exception three. The trio has also each scored in a game twice this season (vs. California and Wisconsin) and three times in their career (vs. Akron last year).
AN IMPRESSIVE STREAK: By finishing the regular season 18-0-0, the Hoosiers have now posted an impressive 30-2-2 record in the last two regular seasons. Since the beginning of 1996 , the Hoosiers are 37-3-3 including the 22-0-0 mark this season. IU also has a 16 game home-winning streak, two short of the school record set in 1980-1981.
SCORING SUMMARY: Indiana has scored 77 goals this season which is the most IU has tallied since 1983 when they had 88. It also marks an increase in each of the last two years. Indiana managed to score just 35 goals (a school record low) in 1995 but followed that by scoring 58 last year and 77 this season. The 77 goals is tied for seventh on the all-time list. They would need five more goals to break into the top five.
COMEBACK KIDS: Indiana has come-from-behind five times this season to record victories. The first was against Rutgers as the Hoosiers rallied three times to overtake the Scarlet Knights. The 4-3 overtime win marked the first time in school history the team had come back three different times in a game to win. Other comebacks were against Butler (down 2-0 won 6-2), Evansville (down 1-0 won 2-1 in overtime), at Wisconsin (down 1-0 won 4-1) and vs. Stanford (down 1-0 won 2-1). Indiana has played 1,940 minutes this season and has been down only 128:53 of that time which equals out to about being behind just 6.6% of the entire season.
INDIANA NOTEBOOK: The Hoosiers now have 22 wins which ties them with the 1980 and 1984 squads for the third-highest mark in school history. The record is 23 set in 1978 and 1994; Indiana could have as many as three games left, giving them a projected goal total of 88 goals, six short of the school record of 94, set in 1976; Indiana's 22 wins did not come against an easy schedule by any stretch of the imagination. Eleven of the teams (12 games) they defeated were ranked when they played them or were ranked at some point during the season;The Hoosiers have allowed just 13 goals this season, the lowest total since 1993 and 1994 when the Hoosiers gave up 13;IU is on pace to set a new school record for fewest goalkeeper saves in a season. The record is 50 but so far this year IU Tkeepers have only 41. Along those same lines, the 'keepers have not had to make a save in six games this season adding to the school record which was 21 coming into the season (now at 27 times);Indiana also won three exhibition games this season for a total of 25 wins in 1997;IU allowed only one opponent double figures in shots this season only once (Duke, 13); The Big Ten tournament victories assure the Hoosiers of the best winning percentage in school history. The current mark is .925 (18-1-1) in 1976.
NEXT UP: Should the Hoosiers advance, they will play the winner of the Clemson/UCLA match in Richmond, Virginia on December 12.
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