BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's soccer team persevered through the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament for its first NCAA tournament in program history. The Titans play the opening round in Chicago, Ill. against the University of Chicago Maroons. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. at Stagg Field. With a win, Illinois Wesleyan will win its first NCAA match in program history and will advance to the second round of the tournament to face the winner of the Ohio Wesleyan Rose-Hulman game.
AGAINST THE MAROONS: The Titans are going into the contest with a 6-6-5 record. The Green and White were 3-2-2 in the CCIW, where they faced three top-25 teams to make its way into the national tournament. Chicago finished its regular season 9-2-5 and competed in the University Athletic Association going 4-1-2 in conference.
ALL-CCIW: IWU grabbed two all-conference accolades this season, second team accolades from Brody Seaton (Dunlap, Ill.-Peoria Notre Dame) and Sam Kedzior (Cary, Ill.-Cary Grove).
A center midfielder for the Green and White, senior Brody Seaton registered one goal en route to the first All-CCIW nod of his career. The Dunlap, Ill. native played a key role for the Titans starting in seven out of the eight CCIW games this year. Seaton helped the Titans to success with key wins against tough opponents like North Park and Millikin in the CCIW.
Sophomore Sam Kedzior, the Titans' primary goalkeeper, also earned second-team accolades marking the first nod of his young career. Kedzior was a key component in getting the Titans a solidified spot in the CCIW tournament. The Cary, Ill. native won CCIW Defensive Player of the Week three times this season. His stats speak for themselves as he totaled 33 saves on the year, with two shutouts, and was the starting keeper in all eight CCIW games. Kedzior has held onto his first place standing within the CCIW goalkeepers in saves (.778), saves per game (4.53), and shutouts per game (.235).
Making History:
The 2023 Titans men's soccer team is the first team in program history to nab not only a conference title but also a spot in the NCAA tournament. Before this season, the Titans had made the conference tournament only four times under head coach Kyle Shauls, with only one championship game appearance in 2019 where they lost to North Park University 2-1.
CAPTAINS: The Titans are led by four fearless captains who have played a crucial role on and off the field to get their team to this point. Seaton, along with senior Ryan Miller (Shingle Springs, Calif.-Oak Ridge), and juniors Justin Hart (Morton, Ill.-Morton), and Ethan Fineman (Highland Park, Ill.-Highland Park) serve as IWU's team captains.
ROAD TO NCAA: The Titans have fought tooth and nail to make it to the postseason. After having an early 2-0 lead on their season, The Green and White suffered a three-game losing streak before battling back in the season to snatch the final spot in the conference tournament. The Titans faced North Park University in a quarterfinal match of the conference tournament, going into their first double overtime 1-1. In overtime, both the Titans and the Vikings scored another goal each (2-2) to go into a penalty kick scenario after the 20-minute overtime. The Titans came out on top advancing on 7-6 PKs.
The Titans then faced a similar experience playing Wheaton College in the semifinals. The Green and White got up 2-0 within the first six minutes of the game but the Thunder came back scoring three goals through the next 70 minutes of the game. In the final 10 minutes, IWU scored its third and final goal to tie and head into yet another overtime. After 20 scoreless minutes of overtime, neither team scored therefore forcing yet another set of PKs. After eight rounds the Titans pulled out another 7-6 lead to advance to the conference championship.
The Titans traveled to Kenosha, Wis. for the conference championship game against Carthage College. The Titans were scoreless in the first half while the Firebirds found a goal to put them up 1-nil. Carthage scored shortly into the second half bringing the score to 2-nil as the odds were looking slim for the Titans. A penalty kick taken by Miller in the 70th minute of the game gave the Titans all the strength they needed to come back. With a beautiful kick to the top left corner of the goal junior Mush Bakirdan (Morton, Ill.-Morton) scored the second goal to tie the game with 15 minutes left to play. In the final two minutes, Seaton sent one to the back of the net to win the conference championship, 3-2.
