No. 12 Hoosiers look for revenge in Big Ten Tournament

Three second-place finishes in a row leave the Hoosiers hungry for a first.\nThe No. 12 Hoosiers (14-4, Big Ten 4-2) finished second in the regular season and the Big Ten Tournament last season. After upsetting the No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions on the road last weekend, the Hoosiers finished second in the Big Ten regular season standings again.\nIU will try to take its momentum from its victory against the Nittany Lions and turn it into revenge Friday against Michigan State, two weeks after losing to the Spartans 1-0.\n"They played a great game," IU coach Amy Robertson said of the Spartans. "But we probably had one of our poorest performances and really lacked a sense of urgency. It's hard to look at the tape and see we're the same team."\nThe timely victory against the Nittany Lions has given the Hoosiers a new air of confidence.\n"We didn't play our best game before, but now that we've beaten Penn State, we know we can beat anybody," junior goalie Haley Exner said. Earlier this week Exner was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the fifth time this season.\n"I'm glad we're playing them," Exner said of the Spartans. "I know we lost to them the first time, but this is our chance to get back at them."\nIf the No. 2-seed Hoosiers defeat the Spartans Friday, they will play the winner of the No. 3-seed Penn State versus No. 6-seed Northwestern game in the semifinal at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The championship game will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday.\nWith the chance that the Hoosiers will be forced to play three games in three days, this week Robertson gave her players plenty of rest before the weekend's tournament. Robertson said she has been keeping her players "sharp" so they will be prepared for the weekend.\n"Our goal is definitely to win the tournament," senior back Morgan Miller said. "But if we play as well as we can and someone else comes out and is just better, then I think we can still be successful."\nTo be successful, the Hoosiers will have to play like they did in their last game and not like some of their poorer performances recently, Robertson said.\n"There was a time when we weren't fully confident in some things, and now (the confidence is) there," she said. "If you don't trust each other and have the courage to step up and take some risks, you aren't going to be successful."\nThe Hoosiers say they now have team unity due to playing with each other the entire season.\n"Everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, so at the end of the season we know each other a lot better and work well together," junior midfielder Meredith Brown said.\nThe end of the season also marks a different atmosphere for field hockey games. When the Hoosiers make the trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., this weekend for the Big Ten Tournament, they'll be playing a different kind of game than the ones they played in the regular season.\n"There are five times as many fans watching you, the other team is watching you and it's elimination round," junior forward Kate O'Connell said.\nDespite the added pressure that comes with the big tournament and atmosphere, Robertson said she's confident in her squad.\n"We have played every team in the Big Ten, and the ones we didn't have a favorable result against we can play a lot differently," Robertson said. "It's really the first time this season we really know anything can happen against any team"