IU receives wild card bid to soccer nationals in Arizona

IU men's club soccer is trying to make sure Mike Freitag's squad is not the only championship soccer team on the Bloomington campus this season. \nThe club team earned regional runners up honors after a 2-0 loss to Illinois in the Oct. 29 Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference final. The loss, IU's first of the year, brought the club's record to 11-1-3. \nThe National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association and its Midwest branch looked past IU's single loss and awarded the club a spot in the Association's 24-team Soccer Sport Club Championships, held Nov. 16-18 in Tempe, Ariz. IU is No. 4 in the Association's region III final power rankings, which encompass Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. \nIU received one of six wild card berths for the event, which is hosted this year by Arizona State University. The appearance will be IU's first at a national tournament since the 2002 championships in Bakersfield, Calif. Club president Nick Tiemann said the team received word of the bid by telephone on Oct. 30. \n"The goal now is to represent our region successfully," Tiemann said. \nIU opened the regional tournament Oct. 28 with one win and one draw in its matches against Group C opponents Iowa and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, respectively. \nThe club started strong with a convincing 4-0 victory over regional No. 8 Iowa, which held IU to a late-season 2-2 tie the previous weekend on the same site, Karst Farm Park in Bloomington. \nIn the rematch, senior midfielder Clayton Guinn assisted forwards Sean Naughtrip and Alex Boler on IU's opening two strikes. Freshman attack-duo Naughtrip and Boler each rounded out the victory with an assist, setting up goals by senior midfielders Drew Thomson and Andrew Kirk. \n"We came into the game feeling disappointed in ourselves because we felt we should've won the first game," club secretary Thomson said. "It drove everyone to play that much harder." \nThe club's 1-1 tie against unranked University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in IU's last pool play test advanced the Hoosiers to the four-team knockout stage. Kirk assisted the Naughtrip goal that sent IU to the semifinal. \nIU then earned a 2-0 win over the region's top-ranked team, undefeated Ohio University, on Oct. 29. Ohio's No. 1 rating assured its place in the national tournament before the Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference championships.\nFreshman outside midfielder Andrew Conley notched an assist and a goal to lead IU to what team leaders called one of biggest victories in the club's history. \n"We had more to play for, but it was a statement game," senior and club vice president Brandon Cook said. \nKirk said he felt IU's physical play gave the undersized Hoosiers the edge against Ohio's tall midfielders. \n"We knew they were beatable if we frustrated them by playing physical soccer and winning 50-50 balls," Kirk said. \nCook said the Hoosiers were "depleted" by the start of the final against Illinois, the fourth match in two days for both teams. The No. 7 Illini ended IU's hopes of an undefeated finish and left the club's postseason lifespan in jeopardy. \n"It was a wake-up experience," Thomson said. "It gives us a taste of exactly what that would feel like." \nRegional foes Ohio and Michigan garnered bids based on power rankings at the end of the regular season, but IU was forced to wait for its offer. \nWhile the team is excited to spend time in Arizona in November, Kirk said players are most eager to play club soccer on the highest collegiate level on the big, fast fields that come with a top warm-weather facility. \n"We're keeping the same mentality," Kirk said. "We want to get through to the elimination round and keep this going"