Indiana State University Athletics

OPENING WHISTLE
Indiana State continues its opening weekend road swing as they travel to Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday, August 19 at 1 pm (ET). The game will be played at Indiana Tech's Warrior Athletic Field.

Head coach Julie Hanley, in her third season at the helm, led ISU to their first conference tournament appearance since 2013 after a fourth place finish in the 2016 campaign. She then led the Sycamores to a nail biting penalty kick win over the Drake Bulldogs in the MVC Tournament to secure a spot in the semifinals.

Katie Wells returns to the Sycamores for her senior season. She was named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference Preseason  Team after taking home second team all-league honors one year ago and first team plaudits as a sophomore. Last season she led the team with six goals scored and 14 points recorded after notching a pair of goals against both Chicago State and Purdue-Fort Wayne.  She is a two-time MVC Scholar-Athlete Team selection.

This year the Sycamores return 15 letterwinners from 2017. ISU also welcomes five freshman into the fold this year. The Sycamores hail from 12 different states  plus Brazil,  including a team-high five each from Illinois and Missouri.   

Along with new faces on the field, head coach Julie Hanley has welcomed one new assistant to the Sycamore family as well. Rachel Fulkerson joins the staff from Rose-Hulman, who open the home portion of the schedule on September 9 at 3 pm (ET).

The Valley on ESPN, part of the Missouri Valley Conference's media rights agreement with ESPN, will feature most home soccer matches from all eight MVC institutions on the ESPN+ and the ESPN3 streaming platforms. The HD-quality telecasts are available on the ESPN app. Seven Sycamore games will be featured on ESPN+ while four will be shown live world wide on ESPN3.

MATCH PREVIEW 
Indiana State will travel to Fort Wayne to take on PFW this Sunday, August 19. 

Last season, Indiana State recorded a 3-1 victory inside Memorial Stadium on September 15, 2017. Katie Wells scored two goals against the Mastodons en route to victory.

The Sycamores are 2-1-1 all-time against the Mastodons in Fort Wayne. Indiana State has won each of the last four meetings against Purdue Fort Wayne, including each of their last two trips to Fort Wayne.

Due to the heavy rain during Friday night's match between Purdue Fort Wayne and Ball State, Sunday's match has been moved to Indiana Tech. The game will be played as scheduled at Warrior Athletic Field.

WEEKLY NOTES
Katie Wells Named Preseason All-MVC While Sycamores Picked Eighth
The Indianapolis (Warren Central HS) native currently ranks eighth best in school history with 36 career points scored and third all-time with 0.69 points scored per match. Her 12 career goals are tied for the eighth-best mark in school history. She scored two goals each against Chicago State and Purdue-Fort Wayne last season while leading the team in goals (6) and points (14) while also notching two assists. Wells earned Second Team All-MVC honors while also being named to the 2017 Scholar Athlete team. She needs two more points to tie Alison Gasparaovich (2008-11) for seventh on the career points list with 38.  Wells needs one more goal to take sole possession of eighth place on the ISU goal chart and three more to kit Gasparovich and Kate Johnson for sixth. She also needs just three more assists to tie Sydney Lovelace for second on the ISU career chart. 

The Sycamores were picked to finish eighth in the MVC Preseason Poll. Loyola, with five first place votes was picked to win while Missouri State is second and Northern Iowa third. Drake, Illinois State, Valparaiso, Evansville and the Sycamores round out the poll.

Sycamores Hang Tough In Exhibition Contest At Purdue
Credit Indiana State's defense in Wednesday's exhibition at Purdue. Though the final tally may have read 2-0 in the opposition's favor, the only times Purdue could find the back of the net came from rebounds. Allowing the rebounds may have been the only two miscues of Hannah Sullivan's evening and it is hard to even fully put that on her. Both rebounds were caused after Sullivan made two of her five saves and one of which was a diving stop. In the end, the exhibition achieved exactly what Indiana State Head Coach Julie Hanley wanted. The Sycamores saw 20 players see game time, rotated players and position to get a feel for her team, challenged her young squad against a talented Big Ten team and saw the Blue and White compete hard for 90 minutes.

Road Trippin'
Indiana State exhibition contest at Purdue on August 8 began a nine-match road trip that concludes on September 7 at Eastern Illinois. That puts each of the Sycamores' first eight regular season contests at the road leading up to the home opener on September 9 against Rose-Hulman. ISU travels to Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa over the eight-match swing.

Alina Steffen Looking To Build On Impressive Freshman Campaign
Indiana State's Alina Steffen was named to the 2017 MVC All-Freshman Team after she provided an impressive season in her debut as a Sycamore. She notched a total of three goals and one assist last season and two of these goals were during conference matches. One goal was a game winner over Illinois State and the other was the tying goal in the Sycamores match up with Valparaiso. Steffen also led the team in game winning goals last season with two.

Caitlyn Eddy Assist Specialist 
Senior Caitlyn Eddy was a defensive and offensive presence for the Sycamores last season. The transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock led the team last season in assists with six. Impressively five of these assists came from corner kicks. 

Historic Win 
Indiana State defeated Illinois State 2-1 in a thrilling victory on Oct. 14, 2017. It the first time that the Sycamores have defeated the Redbirds since 2008 and it was only the fourth time in school history they downed Illinois State. 

New Surface 
Memorial Stadium, the first collegiate stadium in the world to use artificial turf in an outdoor setting, was resurfaced in the Spring of 2018 with Revolution 360, the leader in high-performance sports turf. The replacement of the FieldTurf surface at Memorial Stadium is a major part of Elevate -- The Campaign For Sycamore Athletics. Since its introduction in 2015, FieldTurf's elite monofilament fiber, Revolution 360, has been the choice of over 300 programs, quickly becoming one of the most popular systems in North America. Named after the concept of completeness, FieldTurf's Revolution 360 fiber features optimal durability, resilience and feel. Quickly becoming the most popular surface in North America, Indiana State University will join an impressive list of current users, which includes CenturyLink Field, home of the Seahawks & Sounders; Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Falcons and United; Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers; as well as several NCAA D1 university programs including the University of California - Berkeley, University of Iowa, Toledo University, University of Texas at El Paso and over 200 High School and community fields.

UP NEXT 
Indiana State will travel to SIU-Edwardsville on Friday, August 24. Kickoff is set for 8 pm (ET).