Louisville 1st of 3 straight nonconference foes IU to face

With the team's sights still set on a repeat national championship after winning this year's Big Ten regular season title, the No. 8 IU men's soccer team is focusing on winning its last three regular season matches -- all of which come against nonconference opponents.\nIU coach Mike Freitag said he believes it is very important for the team to win out the remainder of its games, including the Big Ten tournament, for the Hoosiers to secure the first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NCAA tournament.\n"There is a good number of teams that are doing well," Freitag said. "For us to falter in any of these three games, I think would hurt us."\nThe Hoosiers (11-3-1 overall, 5-1-0 Big Ten) face the first of those three opponents, the Louisville Cardinals (5-6-4, 2-3-1 Conference USA), at 7 p.m. on Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium. In IU's match Sunday at Ohio State, the team defeated the Buckeyes on sophomore midfielder John Michael Hayden's fourth-straight game-winning goal, securing not only the Big Ten regular season title for IU -- the team's ninth straight and 11th overall -- but IU's fourth win in five tries.\nOhio State can still clinch a share of the Big Ten regular season title if the Buckeyes close out their two remaining road games at Northwestern and Michigan with victories. \nThe Big Ten Conference honored Hayden this week, crowning him Offensive Player of the Week not only for his goal versus Ohio State, but for his game winner at Butler last week in IU's 2-0 victory. This is the Louisville, Ky., native's first player of the week recognition from the Big Ten.\nCollege Soccer News also honored Hayden by naming him to its national team of the week.\n"For me personally, being from Louisville and playing Louisville, I love playing Louisville," Hayden said. "Being from there, and I think for me personally, there's more on the line, a little bit of bragging rights. The way we're playing, we definitely feel confident, and I'm confident that we are going to win."\nLouisville enters tonight's match coming off a road conference match Sunday versus East Carolina. Cardinal junior Ryan Edwards scored two first-half goals for Louisville, propelling the team to a 3-0 victory. Edwards and two teammates, freshman David Guzman and senior Justin Pierre, are tied for first in scoring with each having three goals on the season. Guzman leads the team in total points with eight.\nBloomington is always a tough place for opponents to play, evidenced by IU's 5-1 record this season on Yeagley Field, with the lone loss coming when Northwestern defeated the Hoosiers 1-0 Oct. 17. Louisville has not had great success on the road this season, as the Cardinals are 1-1-3 overall, while 0-0-2 in nonconference road games. IU has won all six meetings with Louisville at Yeagley Field and is 11-0-0 all-time versus the Cardinals.\nLast season, IU won at Louisville 2-0 on goals from current sophomore forward Jacob Peterson and former player Trey Meek.\nThe Hoosiers and Cardinals played three common opponents coming into tonight's game -- Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio State -- as IU is 2-0-1 versus this group and Louisville is 0-1-2. IU tied Kentucky 0-0, and Kentucky defeated Louisville 2-0.\n"(Louisville) reminds us again of that Northwestern game. They're a team that isn't one of the best in the country, but they definitely could be top-25," said IU sophomore back Jed Zayner. "But if we come out and play our best game, then play strong and quick, we should be able to come out with a good result."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.