Trey Muse just laid down in a curled-up position inside his 6-yard box.
His right ear was pressed against the grass field at the Dan McClimon Memorial Soccer Complex in Madison, Wisconsin.
He was motionless for a few seconds, as if he were asleep. The soccer ball grasped tightly in his arms may well have played the role of a childhood teddy bear that makes sleeping easier.
At that moment, in the 60th minute of IU’s Big Ten Conference opener against Wisconsin on Sunday evening, Muse was at ease.
He had just made two back-to-back saves to keep the Hoosiers in a comfortable 2-0 lead. The first shot was fired from just a few yards out. Muse had to dive to his right and was able to extend his right foot just enough to deflect the ball away.
Muse quickly bounced right up as another Wisconsin player came for the ball and sent it back across the net, where it was chopped slowly to Muse, who got on the ground to cuddle with the ball.
He deserved those six seconds to lie there. Those two saves were pivotal.
Just 11 minutes later, Wisconsin was awarded a corner kick. It was sent in from the right side, and there was so much cluster in the IU penalty box that the ball got lost. All that was visible was a mixture of red and white jerseys, then all of a sudden, the ball was in the back of the net.
IU’s lead was cut to 2-1 with 19 minutes to play.
Muse wasn’t angry, though. He did his best Taylor Swift impression and shook it off. While Wisconsin was busy celebrating, Muse went running out to his defense and delivered words of encouragement.
Wisconsin didn’t get another good look at the net for the rest of the game, and just seven minutes after the Badger goal, senior defender Andrew Gutman scored his second goal of the game to push IU's lead to 3-1.
The game was sealed for the Hoosiers.
If Muse hadn’t pulled out those saves, as well as a few others in the first half, the game could have been tied and momentum could have been on Wisconsin's side.
Instead, Muse’s four saves and calm attitude through adversity kept IU in the lead throughout the 90 minutes.
It’s the second game in a row where Muse has had this type of performance. Against Notre Dame, Muse was making incredible saves, but the Fighting Irish scored once in the second half to take the lead.
Muse shook it off, and shut them out the rest of the game so the Hoosiers could claim a 2-1 victory in overtime.
This may not be the 966:28 minutes of shutout soccer from last season, but as long as Muse keeps making the saves he needs to, it will prove just as effective.
The sophomore goalkeeper may not sleep the best knowing he allowed one goal Sunday, but his team has now won six straight games to improve to 6-1 this season, taking the ranking as the No. 2 team in the country.
Muse is a big contributor to that.
The mind of Muse will now be focused on his next task — shutting out Evansville on Friday.
