EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Senior forward Nacho Diaz Barragan (Almeria, Spain) scored his third brace of the year in the University of Evansville men's soccer 1-1 tie with the Belmont Bruins.

Diaz Barragan scored in both halves for the Purple Aces in the 2024 regular season finale against Belmont. UE led in shots with 12, shots on goal with five, and corner kicks with eight through 90 minutes. Along with Diaz Barragan's goals two players tallied assists in graduate forward Sami Owusu (Denver / Dayton) and senior midfielder Jose Vivas (Teruel, Spain).

"We put ourselves in a position to host a quarterfinal match. Ultimately, we didn't get the job done. We needed a win today," said Head Coach Robbe Tarver following the match. "But a three way tie for third, above .500 in conference, and we'll have an above .500 record for the overall season. We need to have some perspective and some context on the season. I am really disappointed as I thought our guys did enough to win tonight. Circumstances took it away from them.

"But credit to Belmont as they came back from down a goal twice and put us in some tough spots. I think we've played them eight times in the last five years and there's only been two wins for either team. So it was a pretty classic rendition of this match. But we made the postseason, and we have it all to play for,".

Evansville began the match with all cylinders firing with three corner kicks and three shots in the first 15 minutes. After sophomore winger Auden Engen Vik (Trondheim, Norway) just missed the net in the 15^th minute the Aces had back to back corner kicks. On the second corner kick Vivas connected with Diaz Barragan to the left side of the six. The forward was able to head the ball into the bottom left corner of the net for his fifth goal of the year.

It was a defensive battle for the next 10 minutes until the Bruins found an equalizer in the 27^th minute. The final 16 minutes of the first half were all UE though as the team tallied two more shots and two more corner kicks. Evansville's final shot of the half from redshirt freshman midfielder Jacopo Fedrizzi (Giulia, Italy) was just barely saved with a hand by Belmont goalkeeper Grant Calvert.

With momentum from the end of the first half the Aces continued to push the Bruins defense to start the second. Diaz Barragan again found the net early in the 56^th minute on a free kick at the 22 off a Belmont foul. Vivas began the play by taking the free kick, finding Owusu in the penalty area on the right side. Owusu then connected with Diaz Barragan who used his left foot to put the ball in the left side.

UE led for the next six minutes but the Bruins again found the equalizer in the 61^st minute to make it a 2-2 match. It was a battle across the field for the final 29 minutes as both teams traded time in their offensive zones. Evansville's last opportunity on net came in the 76^th minute as fifth year forward Kai Phillip (Diego Martin, Trinidad and Tobago) took a chance from the eight that went straight into Calvert's hands. Neither team was able to find the match-winning goal as the clock ticked down to zero for the 2-2 result.

Diaz Barragan led all Aces with three shots through 90 minutes while Engen Vik, Fedrizzi, and Phillip had two chances each. Vivas added two assists for the first time in his career with a helper on both scores. Freshman goalkeeper Michal Mroz (Elk Grove, Ill. / Elk Grove HS) made two saves while seeing 11 shots come his way.

With the draw to end the regular season UE heads into the postseason as the fifth seed in the MVC Tournament. Evansville will head back to Western Michigan for a rematch with the Broncos on Sunday morning. Kick-off from Kalamazoo is set for 10 a.m. CT and will be streamed on ESPN+.