Good afternoon UIndy fans, there's a lot to be happy about in the Greyhound Nation and Around the Pound is your one stop shop for the good news. We hope you had a relaxing fall break as we sure have, enjoy this week's Around the Pound: Wednesday edition.
TENNIS
The University of Indianapolis is home to a new pair of national champions as Tom Zeuch and Edgar Destouet travelled to Rome, Ga. for the ITA Cup. They came back to the 317 with a new title: ITA DII Doubles National Champions. The win sends them to San Diego, Calif. in a few weeks' time as they will battle it out with the nations best across all divisions at the ITA Fall Championships.
MEN'S SOCCER
Make it six in a row for UIndy men's soccer, as with wins against Drury and Southwest Baptist they have vaulted up the GLVC conference standings, landing in second with only two matches left in the season.
Ibo Yilmaz can claim half the Greyhounds goals over the weekends, having the dagger against Drury and two in the 5-0 offensive showcase against SBU. Yilmaz's prowess earned him his first career GLVC Player of the Week Honor.
SWIM AND DIVE
Despite not swimming this past weekend it has been an exciting week for UIndy Swim and Dive as the first CSCAA rankings have arrived. The men, having dominated both of their division I opponents so far this season, couldn't have started the year better, currently sitting at No. 1 in DII. The women aren't far off as they arrive as No. 4. But before the rankings even came out there was already good news in swim-land as Johanna Buys became the first PNC GLVC Athlete of the Week, her second time winning the award.
COACH'S CORNER
This week we sat down with Head Coach of UIndy swimming and diving
Brent Noble, who enters his first full season as the Head Coach after assuming that role at the end of last season. He couldn't be entering in a better way so far with the men sitting at No. 1 in the country and the women sitting at No. 4. Noble said that while the team knows how good they are, these rankings mean more than that.
"The reason they're important is for the campus to know who we are, and the campus to understand that we're players," Noble said. "On any college campus you can't expect the average student, the average employee to follow every result of every team, and so to be able to publish a story that says, 'UIndy men's swimming, they're ranked number one,' that's something that hits home to people and that's something that gives our team recognition walking around campus and a little bit of understanding of who they really are. We know that we might be the best in DII and so it's nice for our team to have the people around them on campus knowing that as well."
So far early in the season, Noble said that the team has come in fit and ready to swim. He said that they're further along than expected at this point, but that is what needs to happen for the team to get their end goal.
"I've said it plenty of times, we had to be the best we've ever been this year, and we're not going to do the things that we talk about doing or we want to do without being the best we've ever been as a team as a bunch of individuals," Noble said. "We've got to and so far, we are but we certainly still have things that we need to get better at."
One of the things Noble stressed early on in the season is mindset. He said that throughout the COVID seasons the team became incredibly good at swimming in Ruth Lilly and swimming fast consistently and that if they can find that mindset to transfer over that is going to be what puts them over the edge.
The DI competitions against schools like Cincinnati, IUPUI and Purdue are meant to help make the team comfortable with putting on that mentality."
"We're used to swimming in Ruth Lilly, and that's our comfort zone and so racing these DI teams, the higher profile teams than what we have in the past, it's really about creating some of that pressure again so that we can get up and understand what that's going to feel like when our expectations for ourselves are even higher, and being able to conquer that and get out the very best that you're able in that moment," Noble said.
One of the biggest stars of the program is Johanna Buys, and this year she is already making her name known, winning GLVC Swimming of the Week last week. Noble said that mindset and constant ability to focus on what she needs to is what has set her apart from others.
"We're just going to keep pushing; she's a captain, she has a great attitude, her mindsets super solid, she does everything right," Noble said. "To have a sprinter like that. That's super valuable, we've got a few of them, but she's the best sprinter in DII now, at this point. And she's not letting off the gas, that's for sure."
WOMEN'S SOCCER
It was a cat battling weekend for the Greyhounds women's soccer team as they went 1-1, dropping a Friday match to the Drury Panthers 3-1. But the Greyhounds avenged that loss and more on Sunday for Senior Day, as they took down the SBU Bearcats 4-0. Three of those four goals on Sunday came in the first half and two of them came from senior
Maria Herrero.
FOOTBALL
UIndy football had themselves a rough weekend as they travelled north to face Saginaw Valley State. The Greyhounds, already facing a tough opponent, were further handicapped by losing starting quarterback
Connor Kinnett for the contest. The Hounds ended up falling 38-14, falling in the rankings down to No. 20.
VOLLEYBALL
The Midwest Region Crossover came and went last weekend for the Greyhounds, with the Greyhounds struggling to find momentum. The Greyhounds left Hammond, Ind. with three loses, as they return to conference play this Friday.
UP NEXT
Friday, Oct. 21
Men's & women's Swimming & Diving at Purdue, 4 p.m.
Women's soccer at Missouri-St. Louis, 6 p.m.
Volleyball at Southwest Baptists, 7 p.m.
Men's soccer at Missouri-St. Louis, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 22
Cross Country at UAH Invitational, 9 a.m.
Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving vs. Grand Valley State, 12 p.m.
Volleyball at Drury, 4 p.m.
Football vs. Quincy, 6 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 23
Women's soccer at Missouri S&T, 1 p.m.
Men's soccer at Missouri S&T, 3:30 p.m.
