ST. LOUIS- Mo. – After a last-second loss at the hands of Bellarmine on Wednesday night, the UIndy men's soccer team slipped to the No. 5 seed in the GLVC tournament, sending them to St. Louis, Missouri, Sunday afternoon to face the Maryville Saints in the GLVC quarterfinals. The Saints beat UIndy when the Hounds visited just a couple weeks ago by just a single goal, fueling the Hounds in getting revenge over the hosting Saints.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
UIndy controlled the ball on their side of the field, getting numerous looks and chances throughout the half. Alejandro Steinwascher, although a freshman, did not play like one in his postseason debut. Steinwascher put a shot on goal in just the fifth minute of the game, helping UIndy gain some confidence and momentum early. UIndy kept pushing and putting the Maryville defense against the wall, taking four more shots before the Saints got off one. The Greyhounds' fourth shot was the one that mattered most early on. Steinwascher continued his outstanding play early on when he found Benjamin Sierra about 19 yards out and Sierra sent his shot past the Maryville keeper to go up 1-nil on the host Saints. UIndy kept control of the ball from Maryville well after the goal. The Saints got off their first shot of the game in the 26th minute, the Saints sent a shot high but snuck in the top right corner of the goal past Miles Palmer to even things up at 1-1.
 
Coming out of half, UIndy and Maryville went back and forth early in getting shots and getting the ball on their sides of the field. Vincent Stone had a shot saved by the Saints keeper and Miles Palmer made a save to keep things knotted at 1-1. UIndy only got one more shot on goal in the 84th but Javier Steinwascher's shot was saved and we went to overtime. In overtime, neither team managed to get a shot on goal nor we headed to PKs for the first time in conference tournament play in 2016. The Saints elected to shoot first and went ahead early, then Javier Steinwascher matched it. The Saints came right back with another goal past Palmer and then Felix Oevermann matched it. The Saints went ahead and did not miss another shot in PKs, Ben Rohder made his PK shot, but UIndy ultimately fell 5-3 on PKs.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
-UIndy has not won in PKs since 2007 in the GLVC tournament, they now stand at 1-5 since at least 2006.
-The last time UIndy was eliminated in the first round of the conference tournament came in 2011 against Bellarmine when the Knights defeated the Hounds 4-2 on PKs.
-The Hounds have not allowed multiple goals in a GLVC tournament game since 2013 when they beat Drury 3-2 in overtime of the GLVC semifinals.
 
HOUND BYTES
Head coach John Higgins on today's game, "today kind of summed up our season. I thought we were really good, we out played them for long stretches of the game, created more shots and opportunities, but we were not clinical enough this season. I thought a fair score for us at half would have been four or five goals to us. We got in the habit of not putting teams away for as good as we have been. You just have to feel for your seniors because this was a season that had so much promise in the beginning. There are so many teams that would be satisfied with a 12-4-2 season, but we are not one of those programs. We are better than that and have higher aspirations than that, unfortunately for our seniors we fell just short of our goals. In the end, I thought it was a great effort and our performance level was great like I thought it had been all season long, we just lacked quality in that final third to really put teams away."
 
UP NEXT
The Greyhounds will find out their fate for the NCAA regionals next week to see if they continue their season.