Hoosiers tie; Clemson takes tourney

On Friday and Saturday, the IU men's soccer team hosted the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic for the 20th consecutive season. The classic kicked off the Hoosiers' campaign for a sixth consecutive College Cup appearance. For just the second time since losing both games in 1992, the Hoosiers failed to win a game in the season opening tournament.\n"I would sure as heck like to win our own classic one of these years," Hoosier coach Jerry Yeagley said. "It seems like we are good hosts. But performance wise I am quite pleased although disappointed, and we can't be satisfied without finding a way to win."\nNo. 7 Rutgers and No. 9 Clemson each withstood the IU attack and preserved 0-0 and 1-1 ties respectively against the preseason consensus No. 1 Hoosiers. To do so, both the Scarlet Knights and Tigers consistently packed eight or nine defenders in their defensive penalty box.\nDespite a 28-13 shooting advantage in the two games, IU only mustered one goal on the stingy opposing defenses. Hoosier All-American forward senior Pat Noonan was kept under close eye by the opposition as both Rutgers and Clemson blanketed Noonan with two, three and at times four defenders throughout the game.\nThe Player of the Year Candidate still managed nine shots and three shots on goal in the Classic, including a near game-winning goal in the closing minutes against Clemson. Noonan wasn't surprised about the attention he received and said he is confident the Hoosiers will only get better as the season unfolds.\n"They are both very talented teams and good defensively. I give credit to them, whatever they have to do to win a game," Noonan said. "It showed that we are off on touches and reading each other. But that just takes a few days, and I think we will get back in the swing of things this week in practice."\nYeagley said he was surprised Rutgers played the Hoosiers attack in the fashion they did, but he said he doesn't think it will be last team to pack it in on the Hoosiers. With Noonan being the top priority for rival defenses, Yeagley said he expects other Hoosiers will create opportunities.\n"Maybe that is a compliment to us that they did line up and play that way," he said. "But we may see that a lot this year because of our offense. Word gets around and film gets swapped, and they did shut down Pat (Noonan). But we have to have others pick it up."\nThe Hoosiers played without the help of last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year, sophomore forward Mike Ambersley, in the Clemson match. Ambersley was out with a back injury which he re-aggravated in the game against Rutgers. Noonan said he is eager to have his forward running mate back in the lineup, but was impressed with the play of senior forward Michael Bock and freshman Jordan Chirico, who picked up a lot of time in Ambersley's absence.\nSophomore Ned Grabavoy controlled the tempo for IU in the midfield, and Yeagley said it would be key for Grabavoy to continue doing great things to open up the Hoosier offense.\n"We run up through the middle, but we need to get more serves from the outside guys whipping balls into the box," Grabavoy said. "A team can't sit back 90 minutes like that if you are whipping balls in the box because sooner or later a ball is going to scramble loose and hopefully something good will come out of it. But we are going to have to get used to playing against teams like that because we are going to get that a lot this year I believe"