Boxscore

DES MOINES, Iowa -- This is new territory for the University of Evansville soccer team.  Sunday's match against Drake on the Bulldogs' home field will be UE's first appearance in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Tournament championship match since 1996, when the Aces beat Creighton 3-2 in overtime on the Bluejays' home field.

Fox Sports Midwest will televise the match live beginning at 1:00 CST, with Ty Keough and Sean Wheelock calling the action.  Drake and Evansville split their two regular season matches, with the Bulldogs winning at home 1-0 Oct. 10 and the Aces winning at home 1-0 Oct. 23.

Sunday's match also brings together two head coaches who were assistants under legendary University of Evansville coach Fred Schmalz.  Drake's Sean Holmes was at Evansville in the mid '90s and current UE coach Mike Jacobs followed several years later.  Jacobs is in his fourth year as head coach, and has led the Aces to four consecutive winning seasons, a feat that had not been accomplished since 1996.

Tom Irvin's golden goal in Friday's semifinals won it for #4 seed Evansville, 2-1 in overtime over league champion and 19th ranked Missouri State. #2 Drake defeated #3 Creighton 3-1 in the other semifinal.  
The Aces struck first Friday when Tad Kreamalmeyer's heel kick scooted past Missouri State goalkeeper Alex Riggs and into the nets at 68:21. Blake Schneider and Aaron Henkle assisted on the tally.  The league champion Bears, winners of eight straight, came right back at 73:21 on a goal by Heath Melugin to tie it up and eventually send the match into overtime. Then, with less than one minute remaining in the first 10-minute OT, Robby Lynch made a perfect pass to Irvin about 14 yards in front of the goal, and his blast beat Riggs and gave Evansville its first semifinal victory in 13 years. 

"Missouri State tends to put numbers behind the ball, so we wanted to put on as much pressure as possible early on," said Coach Mike Jacobs.  "Our guys did a great job.  They're ready to play again right now.  We had great fan support, too.  Mike Swan brought the (University of Evansville) volleyball team to the match even though they were getting ready to play a big match against Drake.  That meant a lot to our players to have them there, cheering us on.

"Now our biggest job is to get everyone recovered from this match and ready to go on Sunday.  We need to rehydrate, eat, sleep and be prepared for the championship match."

The Aces are 12-7-1 going into Sunday's championship.  Missouri State, expected to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced Monday, is 12-4-2