Indiana University Athletics
DiPrimio: ‘Final Destination’ – IU Resumes Quest for Ninth National Title
11/19/2025 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – When it comes to Indiana soccer, "been there, done that" has never looked so good.
The NCAA Tournament is back and so are the Hoosiers (12-5-1), this time as the No. 6 national seed in quest of their ninth national championship.
"Our job is to see if we can get to the final destination," coach Todd Yeagley says. "It's so difficult, yet so rewarding. Let's see where we can go with this."
First up: a Sunday match against the Thursday night winner between Kentucky (10-3-5) and Saint Louis (10-2-7). IU beat both during the regular season.
The Hoosiers' 39th consecutive NCAA tourney appearance is, by far, the longest ever. No program in the country has an active streak longer than nine successive years. Yeagley calls it "staggering" but not defining – not with the getting IU's first national title since 2012 topping the priority list.
"That's not the motivation for us," he says. "It's a touch point that we've been as consistent as you'd ever want to be."
There have been 53 NCAA Tournaments since IU's program reached varsity status in 1973 and it's participated in 50 of them. UCLA, the Big Ten tourney champion and one of the nation's hottest teams with a five-game winning streak, also has 50 NCAA tourney appearances. Saint Louis, one of Sunday's possible opponents, has 52.
"That's consistent with a capital C," Yeagley says. "That's a lot of different players, a lot of different eras, a lot of different times in college soccer. Things look different every decade.
"I'm happy for the program. We take a lot of pride to be in this position."
The sting from not qualifying for the Big Ten tourney for the first time in program history – costing the Hoosiers a championship opportunity – could have NCAA tourney benefits in terms of motivation, rest and extra time to fine tune execution.
IU hasn't played since a 5-0 home victory over Rutgers on Nov. 7. It's used the latest sports science approach, under the direction of athletic performance coach Bobby Teel, to maximize training.
"With Bobby, we're able to strategize ahead of time in what (training) loads we're looking for," Yeagley says. "In real time, we can we extend or ease back within the confines of what trying to get done tactically on the field. That's different from a few years ago when you used your experience and best feeling. We still use that. Between the two you can really manage the training."
That includes, Yeagley adds, "Being smart with how physical we are with each other. We want to keep the intensity right while being smart in the moment. It's a real fine line, and our guys have done a great job with that."
Yeagley says the Hoosiers had time to get back to functional work such as box defending "without being overly contested and combative."
"We do it in a way that we have more time to layer these things on," he says. "We can layer restarts with video and on the field. Things that you can't get to during a normal three-to-four-day turnaround, we were able to do."
IU earned a No. 6 seed despite not making the Big Ten tourney. Only Maryland, with a No. 4 seed, was better among conference teams. UCLA, Michigan and Washington also made the field.
"It's great to be a top-eight seed," Yeagley says. "If you take care of business (on Sunday), you could be at home again.
"The rest of the bracket is really good. To speculate where we sit in the rest of the bracket is splitting hairs."
Yeagley says the Hoosiers were rewarded for their challenging non-conference schedule, which included NCAA tourney teams Clemson (a 2-2 tie), Notre Dame (a 1-0 win) and Oregon State (a 2-0 win) as well as Kentucky (a 2-1 win) and Saint Louis (a 1-0 win).
"We put tough things in front of our guys and got good results," Yeagley says. "In the (selection committee's) criteria, we must have fit in well.
"From there, you look across the board, there are so many good teams. First games will always be super challenging."
Having played Kentucky and Saint Louis, Yeagley adds, provides a "unique" scouting edge given teams might play one such potential opening NCAA tourney opponent during the regular season, but not both.
"Being familiar can help because the turnaround is so quick," he says. "To scout two teams that you don't have much knowledge on, you have to prepare for two and then dig into the one. That gives us more of a head start."
IU brings a formidable offensive attack into tournament play, led by Big Ten offensive player of the year Palmer Ault, who leads the nation in points (42) from 16 goals and 10 assists. He's the second Big Ten player in the 21st century to have more than 15 goals and 10 assists in the same season. Former Hoosier standout Pat Noonan had 16 goals and 12 assists in 2001.
Forward Collins Oduro (four goals, six assists, 14 points) earned second-team All-Big Ten honors. Forward Colton Swan (three goals, three assists) made the conference all-freshman team.
The Hoosiers average 2.56 goals per game, the No. 2 mark nationally, and allow 1.33. Goalkeeper Holden Brown leads with a 9-4 record and a 1.31 goals against average.
The keys for a successful tournament run, Yeagley says, start with having "a few of our guys perform at their A level, which we've been able to do. We need all of our attackers, not just one or two, to be ready for the challenge."
Beyond that, he adds, "defense is the key to make any type of run."
"That doesn't mean sit back and absorb, but from our pressing, from our shape, our tactical cues on the opponent, where do they like to go, what will we take away from them.
"I like where we are with training. The guys have had a great week. This is where depth is really important. We had a couple of good scrimmages as far as how long we wanted to load and how we wanted to set the temperature of the game. We got good work in."
