The Lindenwood Lions are 6-6-6 on the season and will be the No. 4 seed in the OVC championship tournament. (Photo courtesy: Lindenwood Athletics)

Jason Barnes
Staff Writer

EDWARDSVILLE, IL — Despite losing its final two regular season games of the year, which snapped a streak of seven straight unbeaten games, the Lindenwood University men’s soccer team earned itself a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament.

The Lions, who have a 6-6-6 record on the year and were 3-3-4 in OVC play, will be the No. 4 seed in the six-team tournament that will determine this year’s league champion. This will be the first year the OVC holds a championship tournament, with all three rounds of action — the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship game — all being played at SIU-Edwardsville’s Ralph Korte Stadium.

The top two seeds, SIUE (No. 1) and Incarnate Word (No. 2), received byes into the the semifinals, while seeds 3 through 6 will play in the quarterfinals, which will begin on Sunday, November 5.

As the 4-seed, Lindenwood will play No. 5 seed Chicago State, Sunday at 4 p.m. No. 3 seed Liberty will play No. 6 seed Eastern Illinois in the first game of the day at 1 p.m.

The winner of the Lindenwood-Chicago State game will move on to face SIUE, next Wednesday, November 8, while the winner of the Liberty-Eastern Illinois game will play Incarnate Word that same day. The winners of the two semifinal matches will then advance to the OVC Tournament championship game, which will be played on Saturday, November 11, at 6 p.m.

All games in the OVC Tournament will be streamed live on ESPN+. The winner of the tournament will not only be crowned league champion, they will also receive automatic bid into the NCAA National Championship Tournament.

Lindenwood is led by junior forward Ethan Blake, who has a team-best five goals and one assist this season. Teammate Jens Herman-Houkeland, a freshman from Norway, has three goals and five assists, while senior defensive captain Cole Hutson has scored four goals.

Freshman goalkeeper Enzo Gil started 16 of 18 matches, has all six wins, and four shutouts this year.

2023 Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Soccer Championship