Indiana State University Athletics

OPENING WHISTLE
Indiana State continues its season opening road trip on Sunday, August 26 at 2 pm (ET) when they travel to Iowa. The game will be played at the Iowa Soccer Complex and will be televised live nationally on Big Ten Network Plus.

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.

Indiana State enjoyed a breakout performance on August 24 at SIU Edwardsville as the Sycamores tallied three first half goals. It was the first time the Sycamores have scored three goals in a half since they did it in both halves last season at Chicago State.

Junior goalkeeper Hannah Sullivan held opponents scoreless for nearly 199 total minutes between the second half of the opener at Northern Kentucky, the entire match at Purdue Fort Wayne and most of the opening stanza against SIU Edwardsville.

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 travels to Iowa on Sunday, August 26.

This is the first meeting in the all-time series. The Sycamores are 1-11 all-time against the current membership of the Big Ten Conference.  The Sycamores' only victory against a BIg Ten Conference member came on September 18, 2005  with a 2-1 victory at Illinois.

Indiana State third-year head coach Julie Hanley came to the Sycamore program from the University of Iowa, where she spent four seasons as an assistant coach. Hanley helped guide the Hawkeyes to three of the top win totals in school history. In that same time frame, Iowa amassed 48 victories, advanced to one NCAA Tournament, three Big Ten Tournaments and made two Big Ten Tournament title game appearances.

Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller was previously the head baseball coach at Indiana State. Indiana State head basketball coach Greg Lansing was previously an assistant basketball coach for the Hawkeyes.

Indiana State's last victory in the state of Iowa came on October 31, 2013 when the Sycamores defeated Drake 1-0 in the second overtime period.

Match Notes
Sycamores Hannah Sullivan Concludes Impressive Scoreless Streak
Indiana State junior goalkeeper Hannah Sullivan continues to put up impressive numbers since the halftime mark of the season opener at Northern Kentucky. She did not allow a goal over an impressive streak of 198:56 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 plus the first 37:10 at SIU Edwardsville. Over that same stretch she was a perfect 11-of-11 in stopping all opponents' shots on goal attempts. Included in this stretch was 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. Sullivan added four saves in the 3-1 win at SIU Edwardsville.

Katie Wells -- Owning The Sycamore Record Book
Senior Katie Wells, an Indianapolis (Warren Central HS) native currently ranks seventh best in school history with 38 career points scored and third all-time with 0.69 points scored per match. Her 13 career goals are the seventh most in school history. She is tied with Alison Gasparovich (2008-11) for seventh on the career points list with 38 and needs three more to catch Kate Johnson for sixth. Wells took sole possession of eighth place on the ISU goal chart with her late first half score at SIU Edwardsville and two more to tie Gasparovich and Kate Johnson for sixth with 15.  She also needs just three more assists to tie Sydney Lovelace for second on the ISU career chart.

Early and Often And In Her Hometown
When Indiana State senior Caitlyn Eddy scored the Sycamores first goal of a 3-1 win over SIU Edwardsville, she quickly set the pace for an offensive explosion. Eddy, a native of the St. Louis metro area, posted a big fist pump and smile to her family and friends after the ball hit the back of the net. Her goal came just 2:24 in the match which is believed to be the second fastest goal scored by a Sycamore in the 18-year history of the program. Only a goal scored by Leah Galton after only 1:34 elapsed as part of a 9-1 victory over Hofstra on September 7, 2014 has been faster. The goal was Eddy's first of Sycamore career after transferring into the program last season from Arkansas-Little Rock. 

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.

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 
The Sycamores begin a busy week with a mid-week match at Illinois Chicago on Wednesday, August 29 at 8 pm (ET).