IU soccer begins spring season with key personnel losses

After walking off the field in Chapel Hill, N.C., this past November, the IU men’s soccer team knew it was coming.

The devastating 1-0 loss in overtime in the round of 16 to the eventual NCAA tournament champion North Carolina men’s soccer team was only the beginning of a rough offseason that would include the loss of five seniors.

And three of them — Alec Purdie, the team captain; Chris Estridge, an All-American; and Tommy Meyer, a regular four-year starter at defensive back — would move on to the MLS in January. The senior trio combined for 11 of IU’s goals during the year, along with more than a fourth of the team’s total points.

But as the Hoosiers travel to Springfield, Ill., on Saturday to begin their spring slate of games, taking on the Saint Louis Billikens, sophomore Nikita Kotlov, freshman Eriq Zavaleta, and the rest of their teammates will begin to rebuild a team still recovering from a loss of leadership and offensive production.

“It’ll be really tough replacing them,” Kotlov said. “Estridge was an All-American, Purdie was our captain and Tommy was one of the best center backs in the country, so it’s going to be difficult to replace them. But we do have some good recruits coming in for next season, and I think we should still be good next year.”

IU Coach Todd Yeagley said these offseason months since the loss to the Tar Heels have been great for his players and his coaching staff, adding that the past two months have given him a chance to improve his team internally in hopes of filling the gaps left by Purdie, Estridge and Meyer with players already on his roster.

“This first segment of the spring has been a great time to teach and get guys better — whether it’s speed and agility or technical work — it’s the time we get better,” Yeagley said. “And you want to be able to internally get better with your players, and we know there are going to be some impact guys coming in, but you look at last year with Purdie. For him to double his numbers in goals, we need that.

“Some of our attacking players have to become more dominant and put up more goals and assists and physically get stronger. But I think all the pieces can be solved.”

This first game of the spring will help give Yeagley an idea of where his team stands after the loss of his seniors. He said during this game, along with others this spring, he will focus more on playing guys a set amount of minutes or putting players in certain spots to see just what kind of team he has on his hands before the new freshmen arrive in the fall.

“We always want to win when we play, but we will put in some players and manufacture some situations that, regardless of the score lines, that will have plans behind them,” Yeagley said. “We want to get results, but we’ll begin to reassert how we want to play and put players in spots that might be new to them because we have to see how they do.

“But the gel won’t be complete until August. We’ve got a lot of good pieces right now, but the final pieces won’t come until the new guys show.”