{"id":871654,"date":"2026-08-26T03:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871654\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:20:09","slug":"indiana-womens-soccer-to-face-xavier-in-first-road-test-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871654\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana women\u2019s soccer to face Xavier in first road test of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana women\u2019s soccer heads on the road Wednesday for the first time in its 2026 season, taking on Xavier University at 6:30 p.m in Cincinnati, Ohio. The two teams last met September 2025, in a Bloomington game ending in a 2-2 draw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The road trip\u00a0follows\u00a0a 2-0-1 homestand\u00a0for\u00a0Indiana.\u00a0The Hoosiers\u00a0began their strong\u00a0season start\u00a0with two dominant\u00a0games.\u00a0It\u00a0seemed the team would win\u00a0their third and final game against Bellarmine University in the opening homestand series until\u00a0a handball\u00a0in the penalty box gave the Knights\u00a0an opportunity for a goal\u00a0in\u00a0the 89th\u00a0minute of\u00a0Friday\u2019s game, tying the teams.\u00a0Coach Rife\u00a0expressed\u00a0postgame\u00a0his\u00a0disappointment\u00a0to leave\u00a0Friday\u2019s match with a\u00a0draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day\u2019s done,\u201d Rife said\u00a0postgame.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not where we want to be or the standard it needs to be, but we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have a\u00a0choice.\u00a0The\u00a0challenge for the girls is: What do we do next? How do we respond?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers will\u00a0travel\u00a0to take on\u00a0the Musketeers, who\u00a0opened the season\u00a0receiving votes in the\u00a0United Soccer Coaches<\/a>\u00a0poll\u00a0but faltered in\u00a0an opening day loss to fellow Big Ten school Michigan\u00a0State\u00a02-0 in East\u00a0Lansing, Michigan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Xavier\u00a0won their next\u00a0match\u00a0against\u00a0Miami University\u00a0with\u00a0freshman\u00a0forward\u00a0Kieran\u00a0Bradley\u00a0coming\u00a0off the\u00a0bench\u00a0and notching a\u00a0goal in each half to propel Xavier to a 3-0 win, while tallying just 22 minutes on the pitch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their next match, against another Big Ten opponent,\u00a0Michigan,\u00a0was\u00a0ruled\u00a0a\u00a0no-contest\u00a0after being\u00a0canceled\u00a0due to inclement weather.\u00a0The delay occurred\u00a058\u00a0minutes into the game, with\u00a0Xavier\u00a0losing\u00a0to Michigan 6-0.\u00a0Now\u00a0with a\u00a01-1-0\u00a0record this season,\u00a0Xavier welcomes Indiana\u00a0to Corcoran\u00a0Field in Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In last\u00a0season\u2019s\u00a0match\u00a0against Xavier,\u00a0Indiana was outshot\u00a020-3,\u00a0but\u00a0a\u00a0two-goal\u00a0game from Indiana standout\u00a0then-freshman\u00a0defender Grace Hamm was all Indiana needed to remain undefeated at home, a streak that lasted\u00a0until a final match loss to\u00a0Iowa University<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0in Rife\u2019s second year and Xavier head coach Katy Etelman\u2019s first season at the helm, the rematch\u00a0willtake\u00a0place\u00a0away from Bill Armstrong Stadium. The Hoosiers have seen far less success historically\u00a0away from Bloomington, owning a 2-3-0 record when playing at Xavier and a 7-0-1 mark at home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite that history, Rife said he enjoys the focus that comes with playing away from home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed going on the road because I felt there were fewer distractions,\u201d Rife said. \u201cYou get to focus on the game, and you\u2019re not worried about things going on back home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rife said the change\u00a0in location will not\u00a0determine\u00a0the result. Instead,\u00a0he said,\u00a0Indiana\u2019s success will depend on its ability to control the match on the field and capitalize on the opportunities it creates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference will not be that we\u2019re on the road,\u201d Rife said. \u201cThe difference is going to be what we do when we\u2019re on the field.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana will face Xavier at 6:30 p.m.\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday at Corcoran Field in Cincinnati.\u00a0The match will be streamed on\u00a0XAVIER+.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana women\u2019s soccer heads on the road Wednesday for the first time in its 2026 season, taking on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-871654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}