Decatur, IL – The Millikin University Men's Soccer team looks to get back to the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Men's Soccer Tournament after falling short in 2025.
Last season, the Millikin Big Blue won six games overall, highlighted by two conference wins over Carroll and Augustana, and a tie against Carthage. The Big Blue fought all the way to the end, with one-point losses to Illinois Wesleyan and North Central.
Millikin will play 18 matches during the 2026 regular season with 8 CCIW matchups and 10 non-conference matches. The season will begin on Tuesday, September 1
st at Washington University in St. Louis. With the home opener set for Saturday, September 12
th against Rose Hulman. CCIW play will begin on Sep. 26 with a road trip to Carthage College.
15 new players have made their way to Decatur to join the Big Blue. After the Big Blue lost 7 seniors to graduation, including 2
nd-Team ALL-CCIW selection midfielder
Landon Welch.
Senior Forward
Bryce Davis returns to Millikin following a stellar 2025 season in which he led the team in Goals, Points, and Shots including 2 game winning goals and a 1
st-Team ALL-CCIW selection. Davis accompanied by fellow Senior
Javan Grooms. Grooms led the team in minutes last year, appearing in all 17 games, 16 of them as a starter.
Head Coach
Charlie Ward enters his 3
rd season with Big Blue and second with Assistant Coach
Kyle Petering. Coach Ward boasts a 16-15-3 record during his time at Millikin with a 6-8-2 conference record and ranks 3
rd in all-time wins at Millikin.
"It's not ideal that we're away for four games in a row to start the season. Luckily, they're all relatively close, but consistency is going to be big," said Ward. "We gave up too much easy stuff last year. We're going to go play the #14 team in the country (Washington University in St. Louis), if we make any mistakes, they're going to punish us, so we'll need to be smart. Then with Illinois College, Aurora, and Blackburn, those are games that we expect to be competitive."
The Big Blue take the field beginning Saturday, September 1
st with a road contest against fourteenth ranked Washington University in St. Louis.
