Big Ten tourney next for women

After starting the season slow with a 2-5 record in their first seven games, the members of the women's soccer team turned their season around going 6-4-1 in their last 11 games, propelling them into the Big Ten tournament as the sixth seed. \nThe Hoosiers will face third-seeded Purdue in the first round, as they did last year. However, they are hoping there won't be a repeat performance of last year's tournament, when they lost to Purdue 1-0 in overtime. Sophomore forward Robin Barker said making the Big Ten tournament is a main goal for the team every season.\n"The Big Ten tournament is something we want to get to every year," Barker said. "We want to get past the first round and continue to get better." \nThe Hoosiers have already lost to Purdue 2-1 in a hard-fought battle Oct. 24th. History seems to be on the Boilermakers' side, having won four of the last five meetings between the two teams. Barker said every contest with Purdue is a good game.\n"All Purdue games are close," Barker said. "We need to turn the game our way. I think that coming in as an underdog will help us."\nShould the Hoosiers win, they will face the winner of the Illinois-Michigan State game. The Hoosiers dropped a close game to the Fighting Illini 2-1 Oct. 17 at home, but they were able to beat the Spartans on the road 3-2 in overtime just five days earlier.\nLooking at the rest of the field, Penn State has earned the No. 1 seed with a record of 15-2-2 (9-1-1 Big Ten). It goes against eighth seeded Wisconsin, who made the tournament with an even record of 8-8-1 (4-6-1 Big Ten).\nThe third matchup of the tournament has No. 4 seed Michigan squaring off against No. 5 seed Ohio State. At 10-3-3, the Buckeyes have a better overall record than the Wolverines, who are 6-6-6, but the Wolverines received a higher seed because they have one less conference loss than the Buckeyes. \nIU assistant coach Sara Kloosterman said the team needs to concentrate on playing with confidence.\n"We need to play with confidence because we have the players and the skill to beat Purdue," Kloosterman said. "We don't need to worry about who we play."\nThe Hoosiers' game against Purdue takes place at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the McClimon Complex in Madison, Wis. If the Hoosiers win, they will play 4:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of the Illinois-Michigan State game. The championship game will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.\n-- Contact staff writer Cory Steger at csteger@indiana.edu.