THE FINAL WHISTLE
Final: UIndy 1 – #6 Rockhurst 1
Records: UIndy 10-5-5 | Rockhurst 16-2-2
Location: Michael Carroll Stadium – Indianapolis, Ind.
 
INDIANAPOLIS – Before the start of the 2016 campaign, the University of Indianapolis and Rockhurst University were selected by the conferences' coaches to finish atop the Great Lakes Valley Conference. On Sunday afternoon, the two squads showed why.
 
Playing in the finals of the GLVC Men's Soccer Championship, the two sides matched each other for 110 minutes and after no one could break a 1-1 tie, the two programs would need penalty kicks to determine the conference champion. In the end, the Greyhounds came up just short, falling in PKs, 4-3.
 
GAME CHANGER
With the penalty kick round down to each team's last shooter, the Hawks had the first crack at taking the lead and Rockhurst's Ben McDonald made no mistake with his attempt. It proved to be the winner as UIndy's Brett Langley was unable to convert on his attempt to tie the match.
 
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
-The Greyhounds dominated the start of the match and took a 1-0 lead just 12 minutes in when Josh Ling's corner kick pinballed off a couple players in the Rockhurst box before landing on the left foot of Ben Rohder, who stuck a shot into the bottom right corner for his first career goal.
 
-The Greyhounds nearly made it a 2-0 game in the 22^nd minute, but Jake Meyer's header off a free kick just skipped wide of the far post.
 
-Rockhurst evened things up with two minutes left in the first half when Sean Michel jumped in on a rush up the field and buried a shot into the top right corner from 22 yards out.
 
-Both sides locked down defensively in the second half, allowing just one shot on goal each. But the biggest play of the half came with just eight seconds left when Rohder was assessed a second yellow card, putting the Greyhounds down a man heading into overtime.
 
-Rockhurst's Gianluca Bottoni had a pair of chances to put the game away in extra time, but was bested both times by quality saves from UIndy goalkeeper Miles Palmer.
 
-Both squads finished with 14 shot attempts on the afternoon. Palmer turned aside six Rockhurst shots while Rockhurst's Logan Feldmann made a pair of stops.
 
-UIndy ends the year with a 10-5-5 record, marking the fourth straight year in which the Greyhounds reached double-digit wins. Sunday's match was the final in the career of seniors Jake Meyer, Evan Smith, Casey Zimmerman and Chris Jones.
 
THE FINAL WORD
Head coach John Higgins: "I thought we were really dominant for the first 10 minutes and we kept our foot on the gas after we took the lead. We pressed so hard and played with such a high level of intensity to start but we couldn't get that second goal and it hurt when Rockhurst scored on a shot Miles (Palmer) had no chance on."
 
"The second half and in overtime, both teams locked it down and I thought we played incredibly disciplined when we were down a man. We told our guys that being down a man, we'll take penalties. It just didn't go our way."
 
"It's a sad day when the season ends, especially for our seniors. But credit to all of these guys with how they responded down the stretch. This season could have gone in a completely different direction with some of the injuries we suffered and the way some of our results went earlier this year. Credit to our seniors for the way they kept everyone focused but you also have to give a lot of credit to our young players who were asked to step in and play out of position. They gave us everything they had and there's not much more you can ask out of your players."