🆚 Lindenwood University  
📆 Wednesday – November 11, 2026
⏰ 4 pm CT
🏟️ Hunter Stadium – St. Charles, Missouri
📺 ESPN+       
📈 LIVE STATS           
🗒️ GAME NOTES        
 
Houston Christian University takes on host, top-seed and defending league champion Lindenwood University in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals on Wednesday afternoon. Kick-off is slated for 4 pm from Hunter Stadium, with the winner earning a spot in the conference title match on Saturday. 
 
Head Coach Ryan Pratt, now in his 10th season at the helm, has the Huskies at 6-7-6 overall following a frenetic and physical first round match against Western Illinois University. The two teams remained tied after regulation and two 10-minute extra frames, leading to a penalty shootout in which the Huskies prevailed 5-4 following an outstanding save from Harvey Heeps and a finishing pen from Henrik Sakshaug in the sixth round.
 
The two teams had numerous opportunities throughout the first half, which ended in a scoreless deadlock. In the 62nd minute, Western broke the ice, as Diego Porras put home his first goal of the season to give the Leathernecks a 1-0 advantage. That lead was short-lived, as the Huskies came right back. Just less than two minutes later, Ryan Okerayi took a pass from Cezar Onut and weaved his way through a horde of defenders before clipping a shot back across the grain and underneath Heller to level the score with 63:11 on the clock.
 
HCU missed a chance to take the lead in regulation three minutes later. Clarenns Sainrimat was clipped in the box, but Marcos Moore's ensuing penalty was parried away by WIU's Drew Heller to keep things knotted up. The two teams combined for several strong chances in the overtime frames, but each goalkeeper was up to the challenge, taking the game to penalties.
 
WIU struck first, taking a 2-1 advantage after the first two rounds after Heller made a save on the second HCU attempt. With the count 3-2 in favor of WIU, Harvey Heeps made his first save of the duel, and Nico Kross evened things with the very next shot from the spot.
 
After makes on the next go-around by each club, it was Heeps again, this time with a sparkling save on a dive to his right, knocking the shot away to put HCU in the driver's seat for the first time. Henrik Sakshaug then stepped up and smashed a shot straight down the pipe for the winner, sending the Huskies into a frenzy.
 
The Huskies had five players named to the Ohio Valley Conference All-Conference teams, including Ricardo Garcia who was selected as the Midfielder of the Year. He was joined on the first team by Ryan Okerayi, who becomes the first player in league history to be named first-team four times. Nico Kross, Harvey Heeps and Marcos Moore earned second-team recognition, with Heeps and Moore being selected to the All-Newcomer team.
 
Okerayi continues to pace the club on offense, now with seven goals and six assists. He is second in the OVC in assists, tied for fourth in goals and second in points (20). He is one of just seven players in school history with 20 or more goals, as the goal on Sunday afternoon gave him 28 for his career.
 
Marcos Moore now has five goals on the season, just ahead of the four from Clarenns Sainrimat. Degenaers has two goals and five assists, second on the club, while Lopez chips in a pair of scores and helpers as well. Callum Niven and Ricardo Garcia also have two goals.
 
Hans Leza and Ricardo Garcia have continued to be mainstays on the pitch for HCU. Leza now sits third all-time at HCU in minutes played with 5,864 while Garcia has moved up to seventh-place all-time with 5,369, just behind Okerayi's 5.372 in sixth place.
 
Leza has now played in 70 career matches for the Huskies with 68 starts, moving him into the Top 10 all-time in each category and for his career has been on the pitch from start to finish 51 times. When Garcia stepped on the pitch Sunday against Western Illinois, he became the program's leader in games played with 75 career appearances.
 
Harvey Heeps has been solid in his debut season in the pipes after taking over from OVC Goalkeeper of the Year Alex Aitken. The redshirt freshman has 65 saves through 19 matches, including a career-high nine against then No. 5 and now No. 2 SMU. He was named Keeper of the Week twice and has four clean sheets on the season. He ranks second in the OVC in saves, saves per game (3.42), shutouts and goals against (1.57) and third in save percentage (.684).
 
Wednesday's semifinal marks the third meeting of the season between HCU and Lindenwood, who have forged a healthy rivalry since the opening of the OVC in 2023. HCU and LU tied in St. Charles on October 4 before the Lions took a 2-0 win in Houston in the penultimate match of the regular season.
 
The Lions now hold a slim 2-1-4 edge in the all-time series and this matchup is the third such time the schools have met in the OVC Tournament. HCU won 2-0 in Edwardsville, Illinois in the 2024 tournament semifinals before falling to SIUE in double-overtime in the championship match. The two teams battled to a 1-1 stalemate in the title match last year before Lindenwood advanced 4-2 on penalties to capture its first OVC title.
 
Lindenwood enters the match fresh, having earned the top seed and first-round bye as winner of their pod with an 8-4-6 overall mark and 5-2-3 record in OVC play. Their 18 total points edged out #2 seed SIUE and #3 seed UIW by one point, with HCU just three points back in fourth.
 
Head Coach Kris Bertsch is in his fourth year at the helm of the Lions, and was named OVC Coach of the Year for the second straight season. The Lions placed eight players on the OVC Postseason honors list, including Defender of the Year Luke Neely and Goalkeeper of the Year Quinn Closson, both of whom grabbed First-Team honors. Neely was the second straight LU player to earn Defender of the Year honors.
 
Freshman of the Year Javaun Mills was one of five players on the second team. He joined 2025 Forward of the Year Luca Bartoni, Clement Baron, Milton Kapaya and Leland Gay on the squad, and the latter three players were all named to the All-Newcomer team.
 
Lindenwood comes in as the second-highest scoring squad in the league, while also being the best defensive club. The defending champs average right at 1.7 goals per game while giving up just 0.78 on the season, the only team in the league at a sub-one GAA. 
 
Bartoni leads a horde of 15 different players who have hit the back of the net for the Lions, having scored a team-best six goals on the campaign. Neely is one of three players with a team-high three assists while also chipping in two goals.
 
One of the stingiest goalkeepers in the nation, fifth-year Quinn Closson ranked first in the OVC in clean sheets with seven while also topping the league in save percentage (.763) and goals against average (0.79).
 
HCU is looking to advance to its third straight OVC Championship match, as the winner advances to Saturday's 4 pm title tilt.  Wednesday's winner between the Huskies and Lions will take on the winner of the second semifinal between two-time champion and second-seeded SIUE and sixth-seeded Eastern Illinois University, who upset University of the Incarnate Word, the tournaments third-seed.
 

Get all your Ohio Valley Conference tournament information at the links below.
 
OVC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL  
OVC TOURNAMENT BRACKET 
OVC TOURNAMENT TICKETS 
FULL OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE POSTSEASON HONORS 

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