# 2017 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season

The 2017 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season was the 27th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 25, 2017 and concluded on November 5, 2017. The season culminated with the 2017 Big Ten Conference Men's Soccer Tournament to determine the conference's automatic berth into the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament.
The Maryland Terrapins entered the 2017 season as both the Big Ten regular season and tournament defending champions. Maryland was unable to defend either title, heavily due to a late season slump in form, that culminated with a double overtime loss to Michigan. Wisconsin won their first Big Ten Tournament since 1995, defeating Indiana in the championship in penalties. The Michigan Wolverines posted a 6–1–1 Big Ten record, giving the Wolverines their first ever Big Ten regular season title, besting Indiana on points.
The Big Ten sent five teams to the NCAA Tournament, three being seeded (Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State), and three unseeded (Maryland and Wisconsin). Indiana advanced the furthest of all the Big Ten teams, reaching the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, before losing in overtime to Stanford.

## Background
### Head coaches

| Team | Head coach | Previous job | Years at school | Overall record | Record at school | Big Ten record | NCAA Tournaments | NCAA College Cups | NCAA Titles |
| Indiana | Todd Yeagley | Wisconsin | 8 | 91–49–29 (.624) | 84–40–27 (.646) | 22–14–12 (.583) | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| Maryland | Sasho Cirovski | Hartford | 25 | 387–160–52 (.689) | 361–148–46 (.692) | 15–4–5 (.729) | 23 | 8 | 2 |
| Michigan | Chaka Daley | Providence | 6 | 127–138–42 (.482) | 37–43–15 (.468) | 13–17–6 (.444) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Michigan State | Damon Rensing | Michigan State (assistant) | 9 | 90–58–22 (.594) | 90–58–22 (.594) | 22–24–8 (.481) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Northwestern | Tim Lenahan | Lafayette | 17 | 282–188–67 (.588) | 156–119–46 (.558) | 35–48–17 (.435) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohio State | John Bluem | Fresno State | 21 | 284–181–69 (.596) | 198–151–57 (.558) | 60–49–13 (.545) | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Penn State | Bob Warming | Creighton | 8 | 448–222–78 (.651) | 65–42–14 (.595) | 17–18–6 (.488) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Rutgers | Dan Donigan | Saint Louis | 8 | 165–111–36 (.587) | 47–69–14 (.415) | 5–16–3 (.271) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | John Trask | UIC | 8 | 107–85–48 (.546) | 53–61–22 (.471) | 16–23–9 (.427) | 1 | 0 | 0 |

## Preseason
### Recruiting

National Rankings :
| Team | CSN | TDS |
| Indiana | 4 | 4 |
| Maryland | 12 | 10 |
| Michigan | 9 | 11 |
| Michigan State | NR | NR |
| Northwestern | NR | NR |
| Ohio State | 7 | 13 |
| Penn State | NR | NR |
| Rutgers | NR | 35 |
| Wisconsin | NR | NR |

### Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on August 16.
| | Team Ranking |
| 1. | Maryland |
| 2. | Indiana |
| 3. | Wisconsin |
| 4. | Michigan State |
| 5. | Michigan |
| 6. | Penn State |
| 7. | Ohio State |
| 8. | Northwestern |
| 9. | Rutgers |

## Regular season
### Results

| Team/Opponent | IND | UMD | MCH | MSU | NWU | OSU | PSU | RUT | WIS |
| Indiana Hoosiers | | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 5–0 | 2–1 |
| Maryland Terrapins | 0–0 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 5–4 |
| Michigan Wolverines | 1–1 | 2–1 | | 0–1 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 |
| Michigan State Spartans | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | | 2–0 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Northwestern Wildcats | 0–2 | 0–3 | 1–3 | 0–2 | | 0–1 | 1–2, | 3–0, 3–2 | 1–3 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–5 | 1–0 | | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| Penn State Nittany Lions | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–3 | | 6–2 | 0–1 |
| Rutgers Scarlet Knights | 0–5 | 0–3 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 0–3, 2–3 | 0–1 | 2–6 | | 2–3 |
| Wisconsin Badgers | 1–2 | 4–5 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–2 | |

### Rankings
#### United Soccer Coaches National

Legend :
* Increase in ranking
* Decrease in ranking
* Not ranked previous week
| | | Pre | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Final |
| Indiana | C | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Maryland | C | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 24 | RV | RV | |
| Michigan | C | | | RV | 18 | 22 | 20 | RV | 24 | 23 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 16 | 11 |
| Michigan State | C | 22 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 15 | 6 |
| Northwestern | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Ohio State | C | | | | RV | 25 | 16 | RV | RV | RV | | | | | |
| Penn State | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rutgers | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Wisconsin | C | | RV | | | | | | | | | | RV | 20 | 10 |

#### United Soccer Coaches Midwest Regional

Legend :
* Increase in ranking
* Decrease in ranking
* Not ranked previous week
| | | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 |
| Indiana | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Maryland | C | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| Michigan | C | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Michigan State | C | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Northwestern | C | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Ohio State | C | | | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | | | | |
| Penn State | C | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rutgers | C | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Wisconsin | C | | 10 | | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 |

## Postseason
### Big Ten Tournament

| Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final | Final |
| 1 | Michigan | 0 | | | |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 4 | | | |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 4 | 5 | Wisconsin (pen.) | 0 (4) |
| | | | 2 | Indiana | 0 (2) |
| 6 | Ohio State | 0 | 2 | Indiana | 0 (2) |
| 2 | Indiana | 4 | | | |

### NCAA Tournament

| Seed | Region | School | 1st Round | 2nd Round | 3rd Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Championship |
| 2 | 4 | Indiana | BYE | W 3–0 vs. Old Dominion – (Bloomington) | W 2–1 vs. New Hampshire – (Bloomington) | T, 1–1 $^{W,3–2pen.}$ vs. Michigan State – (Bloomington) | W 1–0 vs. North Carolina – (Chester) | L 0–1 $^{OT}$ vs. Stanford – (Chester) |
| 7 | 4 | Michigan State | BYE | W 3–0 vs. Virginia Tech – (East Lansing) | W 3–2 vs. Western Michigan – (East Lansing) | T, 1–1 $^{L,2–3pen.}$ vs. Indiana – (Bloomington) | | |
| 13 | 2 | Michigan | BYE | L 2–3 vs. Colgate – (Ann Arbor) | | | | |
| — | 2 | Wisconsin | W 4–1 vs. UIC – (Madison) | W 1–0 vs. Notre Dame – (Notre Dame) | L 2–3$^{OT}$ vs. Akron – (Akron) | | | |
| — | 4 | Maryland | T, 0–0 $^{L,4–5pen.}$ vs. Albany – (College Park) | | | | | |

## Awards

2017 Big Ten Men's Soccer Individual Awards :
| Award | Recipient(s) |
| Offensive Player of the Year | Chris Mueller, Wisconsin |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Grant Lillard, Indiana |
| Midfielder of the Year | Eryk Williamson, Maryland |
| Goalkeeper of the Year | Jimmy Hague, Michigan State |
| Coach of the Year | Chaka Daley, Michigan |
| Freshman of the Year | Mason Toye, Indiana |
2017 Big Ten Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams :
| First Team Honorees | Second Team Honorees | All-Freshman Team Honorees | Sportsmanship Award Honorees |
| Forwards: Chris Mueller, Sr., Wisconsin Mason Toye, Fr., Indiana Jack Hallahan, So., Michigan Midfield: Eryk Williamson, Jr., Maryland Ken Krolicki, Sr., Michigan State Jake Rozhansky, Sr., Maryland Francesco Moore, Jr., Indiana Defense: Grant Lillard, Sr., Indiana Jimmy Fiscus, Sr., Michigan State Andrew Gutman,Jr., Indiana Goalkeeper: Jimmy Hague, Jr., Michigan State | Forwards: Griffin Dorsey, Fr., Indiana Francis Atuahene, Jr., Michigan DeJuan Jones, Jr., Michigan State Ryan Sierakowski, Jr., Michigan State Midfield: Abdi Mohamed, Jr., Ohio State Charles Mertz, Jr., Michigan Mark Segbers, Sr., Wisconsin Defense: Donovan Pines, So., Maryland Timmy Mehl, Jr., Indiana Marcello Borges, Jr., Michigan Goalkeeper: Trey Muse, Fr., Indiana | Mohammed Zakyi, Michigan Marc Ybarra, Michigan Umar Farouk Osman, Michigan Garrett Opperman, Northwestern Ethan Beckford, Penn State Mason Toye, Indiana Griffin Dorsey, Indiana Trey Muse, Indiana Tommy Katsyiannis, Northwestern Vincent Borden, Rutgers Bryce Washington, Rutgers | Jack Griffith, Sr., Indiana Andrew Samuels, Jr., Maryland Tristan Jacob, Sr., Michigan Brad Centala, Sr., Michigan State Francisco Tomasino, Sr., Northwestern Hunter Robertson, Sr., Ohio State Dani Marks, Jr., Penn State Erik Sa, Sr., Rutgers Isaac Schenkler, Jr., Wisconsin |

## MLS SuperDraft
### Total picks by school

| Team | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Total |
| Indiana | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 |
| Maryland | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 2 |
| Michigan | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 |
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | 1 |
| Northwestern | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
| Ohio State | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
| Penn State | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
| Rutgers | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | 4 |

### List of selections

| Round | Pick # | MLS team | Player | Position | College | Other |
| 1 | 4 | FC Dallas | Francis Atuahene | FW | Michigan | Generation adidas |
| 1 | 6 | Orlando City | Chris Mueller | FW | Wisconsin | |
| 1 | 7 | Minnesota United | Mason Toye | FW | Indiana | |
| 1 | 9 | New England Revolution | Mark Segbers | DF | Wisconsin | |
| 2 | 37 | Atlanta United | Gordon Wild | FW | Maryland | Generation adidas |
| 2 | 39 | New York Red Bulls | Tommy Barlow | FW | Wisconsin | |
| 2 | 44 | Columbus Crew | Jake Rozhansky | Midfielder | Maryland | |
| 3 | 53 | Montreal Impact | Ken Krolicki | Midfielder | Michigan State | |
| 3 | 54 | Philadelphia Union | Mike Catalano | Midfielder | Wisconsin | |

### Homegrown contracts

| Original MLS team | Player | Position | College | Notes | Ref. |
| Chicago Fire | Grant Lillard | Defender | Indiana | 2017 Big Ten Defender of the Year | |