THE FINAL WHISTLE
Final: UIndy 0 – Saginaw Valley 2
Records: UIndy 12-5-3 | Saginaw Valley 15-3-1
Location: Dean Field – Midland, Mich.
 
MIDLAND, Mich. – The University of Indianapolis men's soccer opened up NCAA Tournament play on Thursday afternoon, looking to earn the program's first NCAA Tournament win against Saginaw Valley State University.
 
The Cardinals blitzed the Greyhound net early before finding the net midway through the first half. Saginaw added a second early in the second half, the final tally in what would be a 2-0 win for the Cardinals.
 
UIndy's finishes the season with a 12-5-3 record while Saginaw moves on to face Midwest Regional No. 2 seed Northwood on Saturday.

GAME CHANGER
Saginaw Valley's pressure from the opening whistle would be rewarded in the 26^th minute. Andrew Dalou broke into the left side of the box and let a shot go that was stopped by UIndy goalkeeper Christopher Jones, but Jones couldn't handle the rebound and Tyler Stephens pounced on the loose ball before firing it home for a 1-0 Cardinal lead.
 
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
The Greyhounds recorded the first shot on target in the game before conceding the game's next 12 shots to the Cardinals. Jones was magnificent in net for UIndy in the opening half, making five of his seven saves in the first 45 minutes.
 
The Greyhounds launched 11 shots to Saginaw's four in the second half, but were only able to get one of those 11 tries on target. Josh Ling led the Greyhounds with three attempts with one try on net. Zak Mitiche and Jacob Meyer attempted two shots each with Mitiche finding the target once.
 
Tyler Channell extended the Cardinals' lead to 2-0 in the 54^th minute after Troy Watson picked off a Greyhound pass in the UIndy zone before finding Channell for his 19^th goal of the year.
 
Thursday's match was the final in the UIndy careers of Leo Cunningham, Patrick McGuiness, Zak Mitiche, Brendon Widau, JT Hiquet and Julian Shamsaie.
 
COACHES' CORNER
Head coach John Higgins: "Saginaw had a great game plan for us and they executed well and we struggled in the opening half. We didn't look like ourselves in the first half and we were lucky to be down by a goal at halftime. I think our guys got caught up in the moment a little bit when the game started."
 
"We came out and played really well in the second half. The intensity was there and we really took it to them early. But we overplayed a little bit there later and that led to a second goal. Credit to our guys that we didn't put our heads down and they kept battling, but it was too late."
 
"Our goal this year was to make it to the NCAA Tournament and credit to our seniors for establishing our culture on a team that had a ton of new players. I can't thank those guys enough for doing everything that they did not only this year, but throughout their time here. We'll be able to look back on this and be happy with it in the future, but right now it obviously stings."