JEFFERSON CITY, MO - The UIndy men's soccer team fell in its first ranked match up of the season to No. 20 Lincoln, 3-0.
Today's contest against the Blue Tigers is the first regular season match against a ranked opponent since 2023 when UIndy tied No. 10 Illinois Springfield in its regular season finale.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half was full of quality chances both ways, with both teams having seven shots with at least three of those on frame. The seven shots for the Greyhounds in the first came from seven different players, six starters and one sub.
Alex Ziermann, Jona Hogle and Kabiru Gafar had the three shots on goal for the Hounds in the first half. Gafar and Hogle's efforts were comfortably saved by Vincent Osei, while Ziermann's fast paced curler of a free kick from 25 yards out was met by a two-handed diving save to prevent the Greyhounds from jumping in front in the 30th minute.
The Blue Tigers grabbed the lead with five minutes to go in the first half on a Christopher Hull diving header that just squeaked past the save effort of Joey Schrand. Hull's goal gave the Blue Tigers the momentum they needed, and doubled their lead just under two minutes out of the break, on a counter attack that ended with a Kanye Francis tap in.
Hull punctuated the win for Lincoln when his headed effort inside the six yard box one hopped into the back of the net to give Lincoln the 3-0 lead.
UIndy was held to one shot in the second half for the first time all season. The substitute Thomas Piazza had the lone second half shot. The last time the Greyhounds were held to one shot or fewer in a half was last season against the top seeded Lewis Flyers in the GLVC Tournament.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Schrand made his first start in goal for the Greyhounds today, in place of
Keerti Unnamatla who had started UIndy's first 11 games. Schrand made five saves on the day.
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Cam Joniec made his first career appearance between the pipes for UIndy, coming on for Schrand in relief.
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Nikolas Karnesis,
Truls Karlsen, and
Victor Mayrink were the only three Greyhounds to play a full 90 minutes today.
- Piazza made his second appearance of the season for the Greyhounds.
UP NEXT
UIndy will look to get back on track next weekend against UMSL at 7:30 p.m. on Friday Oct. 17. The Hounds are unbeaten against the Tritons since 2016, with six wins and two draws.
