Nothing comes easy in the postseason. Not a single dribble, a five-yard pass or a chest-high save. And nothing is more difficult than a gut-wrenching loss. Indiana has seen its share of almost unbearable losses, but the ones that hurt the most are those you feel you deserved to win.
The Hoosier captain explained it best.
“Soccer is almost a cruel game,” senior midfielder Jack Wagoner said. “You can have the majority of the chances but all it takes is one that goes the other way.”
That was the story of Sunday’s second match where the sixth seeded Hoosiers fell to St. Louis University 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Indiana won pretty much every column of the stat sheet, except for the one that mattered.
The Hoosiers outshot the Billikens 16-3, had eight corners while SLU had none and owned almost all of the scoring. Yet SLU’s first shot of the game in the 18th minute made the difference.
The goal started off as a long ball from SLU’s goalkeeper, and after being flicked on by a midfielder directly to Tanner Anderson’s right foot around the 18-yard box, he struck and found the bottom right corner of the net. That was the lone goal of the match.
“We had tons of those same kind of looks,” Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said. “The ball didn’t seem to quite find a deflection. The few chances we had [in the first half] that were good chances but not amazing, we could’ve been more decisive with.”
The 1-0 scoreline was flipped in the Hoosiers favor when they beat SLU back in early September. In both matches, IU felt like it was the better squad.
“It’s tough cause we had full control,” Yeagley said. “We had so many good chances… it’s still kinda hard to believe we lost.”
Indiana ends the season with a 12-6-1 record. Even though they couldn’t get the job done in the tournament Yeagley was very supportive of this group.
“They have a lot to be proud of,” Yeagley said. “When you perform like you did and know you can really make a run at this thing it hurts a little bit more.”
Yeagley and Indiana will have to wait another season to try and capture that elusive ninth national championship. They will do so without some key pieces. Potential Mac Hermann finalist Palmer Ault departs, as does Wagoner, who got to live out his life-long dream of being a Hoosier.
In sixth grade language arts class Wagoner had to write a letter to his future self. His first sentence: “I wanna play soccer at Indiana.”
“Once you see the clock hits zero it sort of hits you a little bit,” Wagoner said. “Even right now you start to think about some of the last moments, great memories, achievements since you’ve been here so there’s going to be a lot that’s going on in my mind here the next couple of weeks.”
Wagoner can take time to reflect on his impressive collegiate career but for Yeagley the preparation for 2026 starts now.
“There will be roster decisions as early as tomorrow,” Yeagley said, “It’s the world we live in, so you have to be ready to move and quickly build again.”
