Kicking open the door to spring

The rumbling of cyclists on a cinder track is not the only noise heard at Bill Armstrong Stadium right now.\nThe IU men's soccer team plays at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Yeagley Field to kick off the two-time defending national champions' spring soccer season against Lindsay-Wilson, with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee against Bradley.\nMuch of the buzz surrounding the soccer team entering the spring season is who will fill the spots left void by defenders Drew Moor and Chris Pomeroy, two-year starting goalkeeper Jay Nolly, midfielder Danny O'Rourke, and forwards Greg Badger and Pat Yates. Major League Soccer drafted Moor, Nolly and O'Rourke into the league in January, Badger played out his eligibility and redshirt juniors Pomeroy and Yates are graduating from IU. \nThe spring also provides second-year coach Mike Frietag the chance to give game experience to the class of 2008, as he redshirted the entire group during the team's national championship campaign in the fall.\n"We get to see some newer players and some players that haven't played before and try to put the best team on the field of the players we have now," Freitag said. \nIn addition to the class of 2008, five players did not see game action in the fall. \nTwo of those players are the goalkeepers who played backup to Nolly -- junior Nathan Scherpenisse and sophomore Chris Munroe -- and have a combined one full game experience, which came in IU's exhibition Aug. 21, 2004 against IU-Purdue University at Fort Wayne. \nFreitag said both keepers are still fighting for the starting spot in the spring; and whichever keeper plays, he prefers to play them for the entire 90 minutes instead of splitting halves between the two players.\n"(The goalkeeping spot) is going to be up for grabs until next September in my opinion," Munroe said. "We've got two good goalies right now and we've got two good goalies coming (in the fall) so we all just have to do our best and let the chips fall where they may."\nFreitag said he thought three of the players from the class of 2008 -- midfielder John Mellencamp, forwards Kevin Noschang and Billy Weaver -- could have helped out in the fall, but because of how other players panned out, redshirting this trio was the best option for their development.\n"John, as of right now, has grown into the position Danny O'Rourke played," Freitag said. "Kevin has shown at times to be a very, very dangerous forward. He gave our first team defenders last year some fits at times in practice."\nNoschang, Weaver and midfielder Brad Yuska all earned high school All-American honors their senior years from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. \n"To the redshirts, it's just not the spring schedule, it's like we're playing in the fall," Weaver said. "These games mean everything to us, just as if it was a fall game and meant something to the team, because that's the mentality we have to go into it everyday."\nLast spring, IU tied Lindsey-Wilson 1-1. Lindsey-Wilson has won six NAIA national titles and finished the 2004 season 21-2-2 as the team lost to Auburn Montgomery 1-0 in the NAIA semifinals.\nBradley finished its fall season at 10-6-3 overall. Bradley plays in the Missouri Valley Conference and had a common fall opponent with IU in Tulsa. IU last met Bradley in the spring of 2003 as IU shutout the Braves 4-0.\n"You can get a false sense of security sometimes playing against yourselves," Freitag said. "Or else you can get frustrated because guys know each other so well. We want to see what we can do playing against other competition in this week and we'll have a couple good games."\nAdmission to both matches is free.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.