Indiana State University Athletics

OPENING WHISTLE
Indiana State continues its season opening road trip on Friday, August 24 at 8 pm (ET) when they travel to SIU-Edwardsville. The game will be played at Korte Stadium and televised live world wide on the OVC Digital Network.

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 is in the midst of her senior season for the Sycamores. 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 letter winners 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 
This is the first meeting in the all-time series since a 2013 matchup in Edwardsville. SIU Edwardsville won that meeting by the score of 1-0 on September 8.

The all-time series is tied a 3-3, with Indiana State holding a 2-1 advantage in games played in Edwardsville.

ISU had won two in a row in the series before the Cougars victory in 2013.

Indiana State's last victory in the series was a 2-0 victory at home on August 17, 2012 and their last win at Korte Stadium came on September 4, 2011 by the score of 3-2 in overtime.

This series has reached overtime twice (in 2009 & 2011) with the Sycamores coming out on top both times.

WEEKLY Notes
Sycamores Hannah Sullivan Putting Up Impressive Scoreless Streak
Indiana State junior goalkeeper Hannah Sullivan is putting up impressive numbers in her last match and a half plus overtime. She has not allowed a goal in the last 161:46 minutes of play, beginning late in the first half at Northern Kentucky and continuing through two halves and two overtime periods at Purdue Fort Wayne. Over that same stretch she is a perfect 8-of-8 in stopping all opponents' shots on goal attempts. Included in this stretch is a career-high tying six saves on Sunday at Purdue Fort Wayne. She had two big saves in a row early in the second half to preserve the clean sheet and then another great diving stop in the 87th minute to keep Fort Wayne at bay. The Mastodons were not able to find the back of the net in the contest, giving Sullivan her first shutout of the season.

Katie Wells -- Owning The Sycamore Record Book
Senior Katie Wells, an 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 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 tie Gasparovich and Kate Johnson for sixth. She also needs just three more assists to tie Sydney Lovelace for second on the ISU career chart.

Indiana State senior Katie Wells paced the Sycamore offensive attack with three shots on goal in the Sycamores' Sunday match at Purdue Fort Wayne. Wells had two really good looks at goal in the first half and another right after halftime. She took three total shots against the Mastodons and all were on goal. In fact, she had three of the Sycamores' four shots on goal during the opening weekend of play.

The Great Sycamore Road Show
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. The Sycamores are 0-1-1 so far with a defeat at Northern Kentucky and Sunday's tie with Purdue Fort Wayne

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 Iowa on Sunday, August 26. Kickoff is set for 2 pm (ET) and will be televised live on BTN Plus.