IU to play waiting game after OSU tie

Since 1976, Mike Freitag has been connected to IU soccer. Sunday afternoon, the second-year coach experienced "one of the most disappointing games" of his career.\nIn the team's final Big Ten game of the season and with tournament seeding at stake, the Hoosiers left Yeagley Field with a 2-2 tie against the Ohio State Buckeyes. \n"We just couldn't take care of business," Freitag said.\nThe Hoosiers played host to the Buckeyes, needing a win and a Michigan State loss to secure the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. With IU holding onto a 2-1 lead in the second half, the public address announcer at Armstrong Stadium announced Penn State defeated Michigan State in double overtime.\nBut in the 84th minute an own goal by IU tied the game at two. Ohio State's Xavier Balc played a free kick into the penalty box, and the ball appeared to deflect off IU sophomore defender Greg Stevning'shead and into the net as he tried to clear it.\n"I think we kind of lost our focus," said junior forward Jacob Peterson. "After we got up two goals, even though we weren't playing that well, I think that we kind of let that get to us."\nFor the match, the Buckeyes outshot IU 14-12. The last time IU's opponent outshot them was in the 2004 national championship game versus the University of California, Santa Barbara when the Gauchos had 10 shots to the Hoosiers' eight. \nThe cream and crimson got on the board first when Peterson scored in the eighth minute. Senior midfielder Brian Plotkin crossed the ball to his classmate Jordan Chirico. Chirico stood 7 yards out from the goal and redirected the ball with his head to Peterson, who headed the ball in.\nPeterson's goal was his team-leading eighth of the season.\nIU senior Mike Ambersley made his first start of the season at forward next to Peterson as Freitag did not start freshman Lee Nguyen for the first time in Nguyen's IU career. IU freshman Brad Ring made his first start in the midfield as Ambersley moved up to striker.\n"Both (Ambersley and Nguyen) are great players," Peterson said. "We were just trying to get Brad Ring on the field because he's been playing really well lately. I love playing with either of them so whoever I play with I'm fine with."\nEven though he was the 2003 co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year and on the College Cup All-Tournament Team last season, junior defender Jed Zayner had never scored in his IU career. He changed that in the 23rd minute when he scored on a header off a corner from Plotkin.\n"I definitely didn't think I was going to score in my (IU) career," Zayner said. "I'm happy that I finally got it. This season, my friends have been telling me before every single game, 'You're going to get a goal today, you're going to get a goal today.' I'm like, 'Hopefully.' But I finally did it tonight."\nOhio State had a restart in the 60th minute and Balc played the ball to senior Reid Traeger. Traeger headed the ball into the goal from 6 yards out, cutting IU's lead in half.\nNow that IU is done with its Big Ten regular season schedule, the team must wait until the last week of the season to find out what seed it will have in the Big Ten Tournament. The Hoosiers' seeding could fall anywhere from No. 2 to No. 5 depending on how the remaining conference matchups shake out.\nPenn State currently has the No. 1 seed in the tournament locked up.\n"We already knew we were going to have to play Thursday of the Big Ten Tournament," Freitag said. "So we are going to have to win three games there to win the Big Ten Tournament."\nIU moves to 9-1-5 overall and 2-1-3 Big Ten while Ohio State is now 8-6-2 overall and 1-2-1 in the Big Ten. The last time IU had five ties in a season was 2003 in former coach Jerry Yeagley's final season, as the team went onto win the program's sixth national title.\nIU's final three games of the regular season begin Wednesday night in South Bend against in-state rival Notre Dame. Then the Hoosiers face Maryland Saturday night in College Park, Md., in a rematch of last season's national semifinal game. Finally, IU comes home Nov. 3 as it welcomes Akron, the consensus No. 1 team in the country.\n"We play three good opponents these last three games," Freitag said. "We'll rebound. We'll be ready"