Before the game, Hoosier fans gave the five seniors on the men's soccer team a standing ovation before their last regular season game at Jerry Yeagley Field.
Afterwards, the seniors - Alec Purdie, Tyler McCarroll, Tommy Meyer, Chris Estridge, and Nick Blevins - were able to go out on top with a win Saturday against Ohio State 1-0.
"It's been a great senior day for me," Estridge said. "We really appreciate all the hard work everyone put in, and to get a win against a good team, it's fantastic."
Sophomore Nikita Kotlov scored his sixth goal of the season - and his fifth in the last six games - in the waning seconds of the first half off a pass from sophomore Matt McKain, which proved to be enough to secure the Hoosiers' third win in conference play this season.
"Me and Eriq (Zavaleta) noticed that Matt had the ball, and we knew we still had a chance before the end of the half, so we both made runs, and luckily the ball ended up right on my feet," Kotlov said. "I took a first touch and finished it. I hit it as hard as I could without really knowing where the goal was, but it went in and that's all that mattered."
Ohio State laid on the pressure in the second half, taking nine shots, including two on frame. But junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner made both saves, taking away Ohio State's chances of securing a No. 1 seed in this week's Big Ten tournament.
The win was Soffner's seventh solo shut out this season and IU's eighth clean slate.
And now, as the ninth-ranked team enters the Big Ten tournament undefeated in their last seven games, IU Coach Todd Yeagley thinks he has a team with a lot of potential and motivation to win a post-season title after letting a regular season one fall from their grasps.
"Today's win was very important and puts us in a very good position," Yeagley said. "We've got a lot of soccer left to play, and we've got a loose, hungry crew who didn't get the title they wanted in the regular season, so now we're going to go try to get one in the post season"
