Ohio State’s men’s soccer team sings “Carmen Ohio” after defeating Northern Kentucky 5-0 on Sept. 3, 2026. Credit: Rocco Donnelly | Freelance Photographer.
Ohio State men’s soccer began the season unranked.
Five wins later, the undefeated Buckeyes have risen to No. 3 in the country, with bigger goals still ahead.?
As they prepare to enter Big Ten play, the Buckeyes are trying to ensure the excitement surrounding their start doesn’t change their approach.
“We are always paying attention on Tuesday when the rankings are dropped,” senior midfielder Ryan Hannosh said. “At the end of the day, like right now, it’s just not very important to us to just have a ranking.”
“For me, every game I’m focusing on the game and not, you know, the occasion and all the things around it,” Hannosh said.?
Graduate defender Elijah Bishop said the Buckeyes understand their early success has changed how opponents approach them.
“We know that we have a target on our backs, especially for the rest of the season and how we started, but it’s also positive,” Bishop said. “It shows the hard work that we’ve put in from preseason to now.”
Bishop said Ohio State has tried to maintain the same approach through the opportunities and challenges it faces.
“When things go well, when things go wrong, we’ve always had that consistency and the positive mindset that, hey, we can get through it and we’re resilient,” Bishop said. “That’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen within this group is the resiliency.”
Associate head coach Matt Foldesy said the beginning of the Big Ten schedule creates the feeling of a new season. Despite Ohio State’s undefeated start, every team enters conference play with a 0-0 record.
That gives the Buckeyes another reason not to be satisfied with the outcome of their first five games.
“We haven’t won anything,” Hannosh said. “It’s zero and zero in the Big Ten. Right now we’re not qualified for the Big Ten Tournament. We haven’t made the NCAA Tournament and we haven’t won anything.”
Hannosh said that focus won’t change, no matter the upcoming results.
“It doesn’t matter if we lose the next three, and that next fourth game, we’re going to come out firing on all cylinders, doing whatever we can to win,” Hannosh said.
Hannosh said the Buckeyes knew during the spring and preseason they had a good team.?
Since then, the standard within the program has continued to rise.
“The standard from the coaching staff has definitely been brought up, not that it was low, but now we can see that they can be very hard on us and us match that level,” Hannosh said. “That’s probably been the biggest change is just the standard every day of just people wanting to be as great as possible.”
The early results haven’t stopped the Buckeyes from looking for ways to improve, Foldesy said.
“We’re still kind of feeling each other out and our partnerships and kind of all of that good stuff,” Foldesy said. “So they’ve done a good job while we’re growing to get results, and hopefully we’ll just continue to build as a team and continue to win games.”
Foldesy said the No. 3 ranking shouldn’t change how the Buckeyes approach each day and that there is still plenty left to accomplish.?
“It definitely matters more where you end than where you start,” Foldesy said. “So, proud of the boys, but [there is] plenty of work to do still.”
