Quest for 3-peat begins this evening

Only one team has ever been able to win three straight Division I men's soccer national titles. IU has won back-to-back titles twice before, but hopes this year its eight returning starters can make the third try a charm.\nBut the Hoosiers certainly won't have any grace period as they must get by the No. 7 and No. 10 preseason ranked teams this weekend. Wake Forest and Southern Methodist come to Bloomington this weekend as the Hoosiers host the 23rd annual Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic on Yeagley Field at Armstrong Stadium.\nEvery year the Hoosiers have won the national title, with 1999 as an exception, they won their own Classic to begin the season.\n"This is why guys come to Indiana, to play these types of games," IU head coach Mike Freitag said. "This is what you have those dreams about, playing good, hard, tough game against a good crowd and that's what you get at Indiana."\nOne of the eight returning starters, junior defender Jed Zayner, will have to sit out the first five games to retain his NCAA amateur status because he tried out for soccer clubs in France following the 2004 College Cup. Zayner, along with three fellow Hoosiers who departed for Major League Soccer -- defender Drew Moor, midfielder Danny O'Rourke and goalkeeper Jay Nolly -- helped to lead IU to the seventh best goals against average in the NCAA with .634 goals allowed per game in 2004.\nSenior forward Mike Ambersley said even though goals were tough to come by in 2004, defense is IU's bread and butter. The Hoosiers will need to keep churning the milk this year as SMU had the ninth best scoring offense in Division I soccer last season with 2.29 goals per game.\n"I feel like we have enough talented players on our team that scoring won't be a problem this year," Ambersley said.\nFreitag, who is in his honeymoon season as head coach, started sophomore Greg Stevning in the team's two exhibition games in anticipation of not having Zayner available along with trying to find a combination of players on the field he felt comfortable with.\nWake Forest played on the opposite side of the 2004 NCAA tournament bracket from IU. The Demon Deacons lost in the team's second match in the tournament to Virginia Commonwealth in a shootout. Wake Forest lost eight seniors from last year's team, including All-American and 2004 ACC Offensive Player of the Year Scott Sealy who led the Demon Deacons with 17 goals and 10 assists.\nMU only returns six starters from last season's Sweet 16 squad. SMU lost to Tulsa in two overtimes and IU went on to beat Tulsa 4-0 in the following round en route to the College Cup.\nJunior midfielder John Michael Hayden said he is anxious to get back onto the pitch tonight after receiving more assurance in his ability when he scored the game-winning goal in the double-overtime match versus Maryland in the final four last year.\n"I can't wait till a big game comes around, especially a Classic," Hayden said. "Opening game, it's going to be a big crowd playing on our own field. I thrive on that. I like playing in front of those kinds of crowds. I can't wait. I have so much confidence going in."\nNotre Dame and SMU kick off the Classic at 5 p.m. followed by IU and Wake Forest at 7:30 p.m. Notre Dame gets things underway again when it plays Wake Forest at noon Sunday, then IU takes to the field versus SMU at 2 p.m. \nAll fans who purchased tickets for last Saturday's exhibition versus the University of Illinois-Chicago can redeem their ticket stub from that match for one of equal value at the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. Transactions can be made at the Bill Armstrong Stadium ticket gate prior to either Friday or Sunday's competition.