Hoosiers head down to Dallas

After squaring off with the two best teams in the country so far this season, the IU men's soccer team will travel to Dallas this weekend to take on No. 3 Southern Methodist University.\nThe Hoosiers face the Mustangs Friday night in the second game of the Southern Methodist Mi Cocina Classic. The ream and crimson will play the University of Tulsa Saturday night.\nSMU will be the fifth ranked team and the third team ranked in the top five the Hoosiers have played this season. IU defeated No. 1 Maryland in the pre-season and tied No. 2 University of Connecticut in the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic last weekend.\n"SMU is currently ranked third, so, so far this year we have taken on (No.) 1, 2 and 3," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "It will be a very tough game at their place. They are a team that last year came a very far way. We beat them at our classic when they were young, but they went to the Final Four last year and they just keep on getting better."\nThe Hoosiers will look to rebound after a disappointing weekend. The team felt like it let two wins slip through its fingers, tying UConn 1-1 then losing in overtime to No. 15 Notre Dame 5-4.\nThe five goals were the most ever given up by a Hoosier team. While the results were disappointing, Freitag said he felt like the quality of play was good but there were a few mistakes that needed to be corrected.\n"We talked about what things fell apart, and I think a lot of it had to do with fatigue from Friday night's game," he said. "I look at performance this past weekend, and I thought we played very well as a team except for those occasions where we let a young man score some goals."\nThe more experienced players said while last weekend was not their best performance, they expected the team to rebound and play better this weekend.\n"We play two tough teams this weekend," junior defender Greg Stevning said. "(We) just need to go down there, play our best and forget about last weekend because it's over. There is no reason to keep dwelling on it."\nThe Hoosiers will be led offensively by freshman forward/midfielder Darren Yeagle and sophomore forward Brian Ackley. Yeagle was named to the all-tournament team last weekend because of the two goals he tallied in the Classic. Ackley is tied with Yeagle for the most goals on the team with two strikes on the season.\nThe team needs to move on because each game on the schedule is difficult, sophomore forward Kevin Noschang said.\n"I think every game we play is going to be a good team, so we need to prepare accordingly," he said. "SMU is going to be very tough, and I think the heat could be a factor. We are going to look for a win, and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. We are going in with a lot of confidence and not thinking about this (past) weekend"