California Dreamin'

One win stands between the No. 2-seed IU men's soccer team and its seventh trip to the College Cup in the past eight seasons. IU hopes to calm the storm that the unseeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane brings to this year's NCAA tournament.\nIf IU defeats Tulsa Sunday in the two teams' first meeting, it will be the sixth time IU advances to the final four the year after winning the national title and the team's 17th trip to the College Cup -- the most in collegiate history. IU won back-to-back national titles twice in that span, in 1982, 1983, 1998 and 1999. The defending national champions also brought the hardware home to Bloomington in 1988 and 2003.\n"I'm hoping we have the same mentality as last year, taking one game at a time, focusing on winning every little play" said IU coach Mike Freitag. "If we keep on winning every little play, then it'll add up to one big game."\nTulsa defeated unseeded Michigan State in the first round of the tournament, then defeated No. 10-seed Penn State. Just last Sunday they continued on to defeat Missouri Valley Conference foe No. 7-seed Southern Methodist University en route to their Elite Eight match-up with the Hoosiers at 2 p.m. Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nSunday's match pits two teams with opposite playing styles, as IU holds the nation's seventh best goals against average with 0.60 goals per game allowed, whereas Tulsa is 13th in the country in scoring with 2.23 goals a match.\nTulsa junior forward Ryan Pore leads his squad and the nation with 55 points, along with leading the country with 22 goals on the year. He averages one goal per contest.\nScoring first in its matches this season has proven pivotal for IU, as the team is 16-0 this season when the team tallies the first score. However, the team is 0-4 when the opponent scores first.\nBut, playing at Bill Armstrong Stadium is no easy task for opponents in the NCAA tournament, as IU holds a 44-3 all-time record at home in the tournament.\nThe last time IU lost at home in the NCAA tournament was Nov. 19, 1995 when Butler came to Bloomington and downed the Hoosiers 1-0. \nThe IU defense, anchored by two tri-captains junior Drew Moor and senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly, has held the team together through the season. Nolly has 10 shutouts this season, including the last two victories in the NCAA tournament, and Moor is a Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy semifinalist. Nolly is a mainstay in the box for the Hoosiers and has played every minute in goal for IU, totaling 5,211 minutes and 24 seconds -- which spans 55 matches.\nMoor, who missed IU's first four NCAA tournament games last season as he played with the United States U-20 team in United Arab Emerites, said he and the team are not looking at Pore or Tulsa any differently than any other team in the past.\n"The main thing is we do not want to be over-concerned with him," Moor said. "We want to play our game. We want to take the game to them and defensively be strong. If there is a chance to double-down on him, than we will."\nIU comes off a 1-0 victory against No. 15-seed Boston College. Sophomore midfielder Josh Tudela scored the game-winner, his first of the season, and became the last Hoosier who started every match this season to score a goal.\nTournaments are the time for players to pick up their play for the team. This is apparent for the Hoosiers this year, as evident by Tudela's goal and sophomore Kevin Robson's lone goal in the 1-0 win against Michigan Nov. 23, 2004. Junior Pat Yates had a similar goal in last season's 2-1 NCAA tournament victory against University of California Los Angeles, as he scored in the game-winner in the 78th minute.\n"As far as big goals in games last year, there's nothing really to think about this year because that is in the past," Yates said. "Just because you did something last year doesn't mean you are going to do it again this year. Tulsa is a great team, and I think it is going to be a battle."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.