250 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(11/23/11 5:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two years ago, the Indiana men’s soccer program met the North Carolina TarHeels in the third round of the NCAA tournament, needing a win in Chapel Hill, N.C. to continue the Hoosiers’ tournament run.But a 1-0 loss derailed IU’s hopes of an eighth star.This season, after both teams won their second-round matches, they find themselves matched up again, as No. 16 seeded Indiana will travel to Chapel Hillonce again, hoping to revenge their loss and will another step in their way to an eighth national title.But against the top seed in the tournament – a team with the third-best scoring offense in the country, the road to Hoover, Ala. won’t be easy.“As we get farther into the tournament, the deeper you go, most games are going to be tight,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “It’s going to be a restart, it’s going tobe a great goal that decides these games, and we can’t give good teams opportunities.”Throughout the regular season and into postseason play, these opportunities have been what North Carolina relied on to clinch the top seed in the tournament.As a team, through 22 games, the Tar Heels have scored 52 goals. But onSunday, IU got a good test as to what kind of offense they will see in the third round.The Hoosiers won 3-0 against Old Dominion, a team ranked second in goals pergame, one spot ahead of North Carolina.Yeagley said that his team’s strong defensive performance in the second round showed what he thinks the key to winning tournament games is.“It comes down to the small details to make a deep tournament run, “ Yeagleysaid. “And our play Sunday showed and reconfirmed what I believe. If you defendwell, you’re going to find a way to get a goal.”As of late this season, the Hoosier offense has been tougher to defend, with the emergence of sophomore Nikita Kotlov as a potent offensive threat. Kotlov has scored eight goals in his last nine games – including three in IU’s three postseason matches – but what makes IU so hard to defend, Kotlov said, is thatteams can’ just focus on the team’s main three scoring threats – him, freshman Eriq Zavaleta, and senior Alec Purdie.“I feel like we have so many threats,” Kotlov said. “When Jamie (Vollmer) comes in, he’s really dynamic, and A.J. (Corrado) has that perfect ball where he can put it anywhere. We have so many strengths, and I think we can use that to our advantage.”The seniors on the team, including senior defender Tommy Meyer, who was on the team when they lost to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament two years prior, know that next Sunday’s game could be their last.But Meyer said that, as is with every tournament game, he will go into the one at Fetzer Field making sure it won’t be his last collegiate soccer game.“It’s definitely something we think about, but I’ve been in the tournament thepast three years, and I take every game the same,” Meyer said. “You know it couldpossibly be your last, but you go out with the mindset that you’re not going to let itbe your last.”
(11/17/11 3:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It would mean fans would have to buy new men’s soccer gear. It would mean finding another spot at Bill Armstrong Stadium to hoist up a new banner.Bringing home the eighth star for the IU men’s soccer team would mean a great deal for both its diehard Hoosier Army followers and the players who earned it.The Hoosiers will begin another quest Sunday that, to both players’ and fans’ hopes, will lead them to Hoover, Ala., for a College Cup, an NCAA final win and an eighth star, which has eluded the program now for six years.But the road won’t be easy.Even with securing the last-ranked seed in the tournament — meaning the team got a first-round bye — IU could face a No. 1 seeded North Carolina team that has had a No. 1 ranking for much of the season.The fans from the Hoosier Army think their team might just have what it takes for an upset.“At times, they’ve fallen apart briefly in games, and I think that’s kind of what led to the losses against Louisville and Creighton,” senior and Hoosier Army member Kyle Pedro said. “But when they’re on their game, they can play with anybody in the country.”Sophomore Michael Heilman said he felt the same, adding that compared to last year’s team, he thought the Hoosiers had a much more balanced scoring attack, making it harder for teams to defend.“Whether it’s North Carolina or whoever else they’d face in the tournament, I think they can play alongside anybody and give them a game,” Heilman said. The players aren’t focusing on games from this regular season but, rather, the games in front of them, one by one.“It’s a whole new season, both for us and for any team we’ll be playing,” Meyer said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, even if it may be a team in our first game that we haven’t played before or haven’t really heard of. We can’t look past anyone or take them too lightly.”Meyer, though, said he thinks on the right day, the Hoosiers could make a serious run into the tournament, where he hopes to play in his first College Cup.“It’s been something we’ve been talking about since we started practice back in August, and I think we have a really special group,” Meyer said. “It would be a perfect end for my time here at IU.”Meyer knows bringing a national championship back to Bloomington wouldn’t excite just the players and coaches who have been on the field but also those in the Hoosier Army and the rest of the fans that have been behind them the whole season.“It would show that we’re moving in the right direction, not only with Coach (Todd) Yeagley and Coach (Brian) Maisonneuve, but the players they’ve brought in,” Meyer said. “And the Hoosier Army has been behind us the whole season, and I hope we can bring them a championship, too.”
(11/15/11 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sitting in Yogi’s Grill & Bar, staring at a large flat-screen TV, the IU men’s soccer team members awaited their fate as the NCAA announced the seeding for the 2011 NCAA Tournament at 4:30 p.m. Monday.After finishing the regular season ranked No. 19 according to their RPI, yet in the top 10 in several college soccer polls across the country, it was unclear to IU where it would fall in this season’s tournament.Soon after the broadcast aired, the Hoosiers realized their quest for the eighth star would begin a little later than they might have thought. Indiana grabbed the No. 16 seed for the tournament, awarding them a first-round bye into the tournament of 48. Unseeded Liberty and Old Dominion will face off Thursday to determine the Hoosiers’ second-round foe.Freshman Eriq Zavaleta, who got his first taste of postseason college soccer during the Big Ten tournament last week, said he believes the Hoosiers will reap some benefits from getting extra rest with their first-round bye.“We’ve had a really tough season with a lot of midweek games, so it’s good to be able to get some rest,” Zavaleta said. “I know people talk about how having to play in the first-round game sets you up for making it far in the tournament, but I think playing Old Dominion or Liberty with a couple more days of rest is a good thing.”Without knowing which team the Hoosiers will be playing until Thursday, it might seem that IU’s opponent would have the upper hand in preparing for the second-round game. Senior Chris Estridge, though, knows the Hoosier coaching staff will more than prepare him and his teammates for Sunday’s game.“Our coaches do a good job of breaking down video, and they’ll give us a lot of clips and highlight a lot of points,” Estridge said. “They will most likely have video from games even before this matchup on Thursday because they’ll pick up on both of their tendencies.”After IU’s tough loss in penalty kicks in the Big Ten tournament semifinals this past Friday, Estridge said it might be nice to have a few more days to get that game out of the Hoosiers’ heads.“We definitely took a lot from that game because we did a lot of good things,” Estridge said. “We had a few mistakes here and there, but we did a lot of good things, and we’re going to learn from that and look forward to the next game. It’s a tough road.”If Indiana were to win Sunday, the team would face No. 1-seeded North Carolina, which won the ACC tournament this past weekend.Despite IU’s loss to eventual tournament champion Akron in the third round of this past year’s tournament, Zavaleta said he believes his team has what it takes to possibly pull an upset and make a run in this year’s tournament. After all, it is IU’s 25th-straight tournament appearance.“We have high expectations,” Zavaleta said. “As an Indiana team, we always looks for a deep run in the tournament, and I think we’ve been good enough to win every game we’ve been in this year, and that includes games against Creighton and Louisville — good teams in the tournament. We’ve got to set the bar high.”As for the road to the eighth star, Zavaleta said the Hoosiers won’t be easily diverted from the final destination.“Realistically, we would like to be in Alabama for the College Cup,” he said. “I know we’ve got tough competition ahead of us, but we think we’re good enough to beat anybody.”
(11/14/11 5:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner succeeded for a ninth time this season in shutting out IU’s opponent. The problem was, he didn’t shut out his own teammate, senior Tommy Meyer.With just 13 minutes remaining in IU’s Big Ten semifinal match against Northwestern on Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Hoosiers were holding onto a 1-0 lead. The Northwestern Wildcats were attacking once again.Meyer saved a ball just inches away from the goal line, but when he tried to clear the shot, the ball ricocheted off of Soffner’s back, right into IU’s goal.And just like that, Northwestern rode a fluke goal into penalty kicks, winning the shootout 3-2 and knocking the Hoosiers from the Big Ten tournament.Even with the second game in just two weeks that the Hoosiers tied Northwestern in regulation, IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he thought his players put up a better fight Friday.“We were definitely better prepared for them after seeing them late in the regular season,” Yeagley said. “We defended Oliver Kupe, who’s been pretty dangerous all season, and we did a pretty good job after our rough first 10 minutes.”Northwestern’s offense started quickly, making two quick strikes on Soffner, but the first shot hit the bottom of the crossbar and the other struck the right post, and IU escaped the attack.Then IU’s offense began to click. The Hoosiers maintained the ball for much of the rest of the first half, and with 25:30 remaining in the first period, Meyer played a ball down to freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta, who was posting up on a Northwestern defender in the right side of the box. Zavaleta spun around his opponent and snuck a shot into the left corner of the goal, his 10th goal of the season.“It’s always good to be the team to get the first goal of the game,” Zavaleta said. “You can really dictate the pace of play there on out, and I really felt like we were able to do that pretty well.”Even after IU’s own-goal, senior Chris Estridge said he still felt he and his teammates were going to be able to get another goal before the end of regulation and then again during one of the overtime periods.“We just felt really confident with the ball,” Estridge said. “I really felt like another goal was coming.”Yeagley also said he felt like his players played their best soccer toward the end of the game after they’d relinquished their lead, something they did often throughout the regular season.“I really thought we were most aggressive in our chances late in the second half and in overtime,” Yeagley said. “But things happen, and I told our guys that it’s just how you respond to it.”After seeing he and his teammates let go of another second-half lead, Estridge said he really feels the key going into the NCAA tournament is just simply scoring more goals and putting their opponents out of reach.“In the rest of our games this season, we just really need to battle and play with a killer mentality,” Estridge said. “We really need to be pushing for those third and fourth goals instead of trying to hold onto those one- or two-goal leads because those have come back to bite us.“We need to work on putting teams away instead of letting them hang around.”After the tough loss, Yeagley said he tried to stress to his players that they still had games left to play. They still had to refocus and now have to forget their misfortunes from Friday.“We’ve still got a lot of important soccer ahead of us,” Yeagley said. “There’s sure nothing to ease the pain and the deflating feeling from this loss, but we’ve got time to cool off and get our heads right. And once we’re back in Bloomington, we’ll get ready to go wherever the tournament draw takes us.”
(11/11/11 4:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Less than two weeks ago, if they’d been able to block that last goal with five minutes to go, the IU men’s soccer team would have the Big Ten regular season trophy.IU played Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., in its second-to-last regular season game of the year and was ahead 2-1 against the eventual regular season conference champion when a costly goal pushed the game to a tie. In the end, this goal could have been the lone difference between a regular season title and the No. 4 seed, which the Hoosiers tout going into Friday’s Big Ten tournament semifinal match against the Wildcats, who received first-round bye.“That game is definitely fresh on our minds,” senior Alec Purdie said. “It’s very similar to Michigan State, who we played late in the season and let a win slip away, but we got them back on Wednesday, and we’re looking to get what we feel we should have gotten in Evanston — a win.”The Hoosiers know all too well that the advantage of a regular season title coming with a first-round bye in the conference tournament doesn’t always help. After capturing the 2010 regular season title, IU lost its first game of the conference tournament, a semifinal match against Penn State, which some players attributed to not having the feel of the tournament already under their belts.Zavaleta said he thinks IU is in the perfect position to pull an upset against Northwestern this year.“Yeah, they may have fresher legs than us, but we kinda feel like they stole the regular season title out from under us,” Zavaleta said. “We’re going to go in with the mindset that we’re going to steal it back, and we’ve already played in the stadium and the atmosphere, and I think that really will help us.”Purdie agreed, saying that if he and his teammates play as they did for the first 85 minutes back in Evanston, they should see themselves in the championship match on Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich.“There’s nothing we need to change. We simply let one slip away from us,” Purdie said. “We’re not worried playing the number one team because we know we can play with them.”The defensive mishaps that plagued them against Northwestern have seemed to improve the last two games. IU shutout Ohio State for only the fourth time in the Buckeyes’ season, preventing them from capturing a Big Ten title. Against Michigan State on Wednesday, the Hoosiers had the Spartans scoreless for 81 minutes before giving up a score.They were able to keep a 2-0 lead, something which the team has struggled with this year, and Zavaleta said he feels that gave his team the boost they needed.“We’re coming in with confidence on Friday,” Zavaleta said. “We’ve just got to not beat ourselves, and we’re going to win games.”
(11/10/11 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last year, after winning the Big Ten regular season title, the members of the men’s soccer team knew they were the best team in their conference going into the postseason.Even with a regular season title in hand, proving themselves in the post season wouldn’t be easy. After IU fell 2-1 to Penn State in the semi-finals, they knew they left more on the field in State College, Pa., senior midfielder Alec Purdie said.“If you win the regular season, you essentially prove that you’re the best,” Purdie said. “We had high hopes to win, and we played a close game and got unlucky. ”With the team’s regular season title in 2010, the Hoosiers had the advantage of a first-round bye, advancing to the semi-finals to face Penn State. Senior defender Tommy Meyer said he felt the bye actually hurt the players because they came in slower and less prepared.“It’s always hard to come in on top,” Meyer said. “I almost felt like it hurt us a little bit, because I don’t think we were as ready or as focused as if we had played in a first-round game.”This season, as the Hoosiers enter the Big Ten tournament with the fourth seed, they don’t have the luxury — or hindrance — of a first-round bye. They go into Friday’s match against Northwestern with a chance to knock off the team that sat out the first round while Meyer’s team played Michigan State.Whether the Hoosiers defeat Northwestern en route to a Big Ten tournament title or lose somewhere along the way, they know the NCAA tournament will start everything anew. After last season’s loss to Penn State in the semifinals, IU went on to defeat Tulsa 5-1 to tie for its largest margin of victory on the season.“I really think that loss motivated us a lot,” Meyer said. “We let that one against Penn State slip away, and we know that going into the NCAAs, it’s a totally new season.”It was a new season that ended prematurely for IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s squad. After its blowout win last season against Tulsa, his team collided with eventual tournament champion Akron, where IU fell behind 2-0 and eventually lost 2-1.“The loss left the returning players wanting more out of the 2011 postseason,” midfielder Joe Tolen said.“Playing for IU, anytime you go out in the ‘Sweet 16,’ you’re proud to make it that far, but there’s always going to be disappointment that we didn’t go further,” Tolen said. “And losing in general gives us that edge, that want to succeed next year.”Purdie, though, is especially motivated this season, not only from the loss in last season’s tournament but because he has yet to witness or be a part of a Big Ten tournament title since he’s been in Bloomington.“It always burns to lose, especially at Indiana, with the pride and tradition we have here,” Purdie said. “I haven’t been able to win one yet, so yeah, it does kind of burn. “We want to show everybody what we’re all about and set up a run into the NCAAs.”
(11/07/11 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With 15 seconds left in the first half, neither IU nor Ohio State looked like it would put any goals on the board in the first 45 minutes. That was until the ball found the foot of sophomore Nikita Kotlov. He received a pass from fellow sophomore Matt McKain in the box and nailed it past Ohio State for the only goal of the game.Kotlov now has six goals this season, with five of them from the Hoosiers’ last six games.“Me and Eriq (Zavaleta) noticed that Matt had the ball, and we knew we still had a chance before the end of the half, so we both made runs, and luckily, the ball ended up right on my feet,” Kotlov said. “I took a first touch and finished it. I hit it as hard as I could without really knowing where the goal was, but it went in, and that’s all that mattered.”Ohio State was playing to secure the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament, but the IU men’s soccer team squashed the Buckeyes’ hopes and gained more momentum heading into postseason play with a 1-0 victory Saturday at Jerry Yeagley Field.Redshirt junior Nick Blevins and seniors Chris Estridge, Tyler McCarroll, Tommy Meyer and Alec Purdie played their final regular season home game in the cream and crimson. The Hoosiers celebrated Senior Day with a win to move to 3-1-2 in the Big Ten and 11-3-4 overall.“It’s been a great senior day for me,” Estridge said. “We really appreciate all the hard work everyone put in, and to get a win against a good team, it’s fantastic.” In the second half, the IU defensive line, along with junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner, faced a heightened attack by the Buckeyes, who tried nine shots in the final 45 minutes. But they put only two shots on frame, and Soffner made both saves, giving IU its eighth shutout of the season.Estridge said the Hoosiers were much more focused and on the defensive than they had been in past games, during which they were able to secure 2-0 leads, which they often let get away from them in 2-2 ties or losses.“A lot of times, when we’ve been up 2-0, we relax, and that’s always the most dangerous lead in soccer,” Estridge said. “With the 1-0 lead, it puts us more on edge, and we knew we had to protect it. We’ve been giving up some goals lately, and it’s something we’ve really worked on and had to focus on.” Even though he said he would have loved to see his team grab another goal, IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he was happy with the way his players competed with the 1-0 lead they were able to keep in the second half.“I would have taken the extra goal any day, and I thought we were going to get it at some point in that second half,” Yeagley said. “But today’s win was very important and puts us in a very good position. We’ve got a lot of soccer left to play, and we’ve got a loose, hungry crew who didn’t get the title they wanted in the regular season, so now we’re going to go try to get one in the postseason.”
(11/04/11 3:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Even after losing more than 75 percent of last season’s team’s goal scoring to graduation and the MLS, IU Coach Todd Yeagley still knew he had the offensive firepower his team needed for success.Senior Alec Purdie returned for a fourth year. Purdie showed offensive potential his last few seasons, Yeagley said.Yeagley’s Hoosiers also had freshman Eriq Zavaleta, who leads the team in goals scored this year with nine.But after coming off an injury, Yeagley said he didn’t realize the impact of yet a third offensive threat, sophomore Nikita Kotlov, completing a “Three Musketeers” of sorts in IU’s attacking front.“We did have high expectations for Nikita coming into the season because he had lots of flashes last year,” Yeagley said. “But even with his injury, he’s taken the time and given us great effort.”The Indianapolis native knows his role as one of the go-to guys on the team is more important than ever with the end of the season looming Saturday against Ohio State at home.“My role is more of the dynamic movements in the middle to create options for us to score goals,” Kotlov said. “I simply go out and try to create as many chances for myself as I can, and lately, my teammates have done a great job finding me up top.”In his freshman season, Kotlov scored three goals and recorded six assists. This year, though he is yet to get an assist, he’s kicked five goals with one regular season game remaining on the schedule, which is important for a team that had lost 25 of its 37 goals last year in now-gone Will Bruin and Andy Adlard.“This season, we’ve been able to find goals in many different spots,” Yeagley said. “We had to find ways to replace the offense we lost — and we had to do it by committee. And I think we’ve done that.”It’s a trend Yeagley and his squad hope to continue as they face the Big Ten’s top-ranked team, which is hunting for a win that would bring a conference regular season title this weekend.As Kotlov prepares for the final regular season battle, he said he knows he’s coming into the season finale a smarter player than he was last year or even at the beginning of this season.“Late this year, I’ve done a lot more passing up shots and looking for the right one,” Kotlov said. “I’m trying to pick my chances wisely instead of just ripping right at it and hoping it goes in.”Yeagley said he has noticed an improvement in his up-and-coming athlete.“I’ve been telling him all year that we need him to step up and make plays,” Yeagley said. “And he has, but a lot of the things he does well don’t show up on the stat sheet.”
(10/27/11 4:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Other than the final 18 minutes of IU’s 6-0 drubbing of Dayton early in the season, IU Coach Todd Yeagley had trusted junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner to keep balls out of the net for the men’s soccer team.But Wednesday night, as his team traveled to Evansville, Ind., Yeagley decided to start freshman Michael Soderland instead.“We’ve been planning to get Mike some time for a while, and I felt like this would be a good game to get him a start,” Yeagley said. “Going into the end of the regular season and the postseason, we want to make sure that we’re ready for whatever comes our way.”Despite having the freshman in goal for the full game, Soderland’s teammates put together enough offense to give him his first win as a Hoosier, defeating the Purple Aces 2-1.In the first half Wednesday night, neither team took full offensive control in the opening minutes, with IU keeping only a 6-4 lead with shots.Freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta lurked in front of the Evansville goal, but several offsides calls against the freshman put a halt to a few of the Hoosiers’ goal chances.Then, with seven minutes left to play in the first half, a sharp pass from sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts gave senior defender Chris Estridge IU’s first real chance to score.He didn’t waste his opportunity, burying the ball in the back of the net for his third goal of the season.“It was a nice one to get,” Estridge said. “It’s been a while for me because I got a few early in the season, but it was a nice relief and a good way to finish off the first half.”In the opening minutes of the second half, the Hoosiers were able to tack on another quick goal. Sophomore midfielder Nikita Kotlov took a pass from senior midfielder Alec Purdie and shot it past Evansville goalie Eric Teppen with his first touch. Kotlov’s score gave him four games in a row with a goal and five goals total this season.Yet Indiana hasn’t always proven comfortable with a 2-0 lead this season, losing 3-2 to Louisville and tying Michigan State 2-2 earlier this year. Both happened when IU had a 2-0 advantage.Evansville looked like it might make another late-game comeback against Yeagley’s team, scoring just two minutes after Kotlov’s goal, but IU stayed strong in the closing minutes of the game to fend off the Purple Aces.“Tonight, even after they scored that first goal, both our offense and defense really kept their composure, which I think was what we lacked in those other games,” Yeagley said. “The lesson going forward is that we still need to look for that third or fourth goal, but our guys responded well tonight.” Credited with the win, Soderland said although he found out only five hours before the game’s start that he’d be defending between the posts, he felt nothing unusual during the pregame warm-ups.“I just needed to focus myself mentally, but it was nice to get the experience under my belt and get the reward of the start tonight,” Soderland said. “It was such an honor to be in goal tonight, such a great feeling.”As the team goes on to face Northwestern this weekend, Yeagley now has the task of deciding who he wants in goal to face the Wildcats.“We’ll continue to evaluate this game,” Yeagley said. “Just sit back and move forward with what’s best for the team.”
(10/26/11 3:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With 12 Hoosiers contributing points to the men’s soccer team’s offense, it’s been tough for other players to see much time on the field this season. Junior Joe Tolen has seen action in only five games. The midfielder said he hopes, as he returns to his native Evansville on Wednesday for a game against the Aces, that he’ll get another opportunity to play in front of his old home crowd.“It’s always great to play in front of people you know,” Tolen said. “I’m really excited for this game because it’s only my second time returning to Evansville, and the first time I was redshirted, so I’ve had this one on my radar for a long time.”In his high school days, Tolen was a four-time all-conference soccer player for Evansville Central. He scored 79 goals and tallied 53 assists in his four years. He was named first-team all-state and all-region as a senior in 2007, leading his team to the regional final for the first time.Although Tolen finished his years at Central as the all-time single season leader in assists, scoring and varsity starts, he said he’s moved past his days as a Bear, not having been in contact with any of his former teammates who now play for the Aces.“I know a couple freshmen on the team this year, but I haven’t really played much with any of them,” Tolen said. “I’m just really looking forward to being back playing under an Evansville crowd.”In the end, though, Tolen’s playing time rests in IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s hands.“This season, Joe just hasn’t been able to find the minutes I know he’s been looking for,” Yeagley said. “But he’s definitely a key player, and if the opportunity arises on Wednesday night, we’d like to be able to find him some playing time.”Tolen has recorded two goals and six assists in the 23 games, including three starts, he’s appeared in as a Hoosier through almost three seasons. But, as the junior said, even just getting some playing time Wednesday would be enough for him. “Anytime you can go play in front of your family and friends and in the town you used to play, it’s a great atmosphere to be around,” Tolen said. “I’m really looking forward to this one.”Just two weeks ago, sophomore Jamie Vollmer faced a similar situation to Tolen’s. Vollmer had the chance to return to his old college team when IU traveled to Indianapolis to face Butler, where Vollmer spent his freshman year.Vollmer emerged with two shots on goal in the Hoosiers’ 1-0 win, and Yeagley said he’s seen how important it is for his players to play in front of crowds filled with their family and friends after Vollmer’s performance. He said he hopes that Tolen can give his team the same type of spark that Vollmer did if Yeagley can find Tolen some playing time.“Anytime you can play in front of a crowd like that, it’s huge, as player,” Yeagley said. “If he gets a chance, I know he’ll be ready. He brings it every day.”
(10/20/11 4:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After playing into the wind and dealing with their corner kicks blowing away from the goal for the first 45 minutes, the IU men’s soccer team went into the locker room drenched, cold and without a goal.But as IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s players switched sides for the second half, so did their luck.And after two goals, along with a shutout by junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner, Indiana scored a third-straight win, 2-0 against Kentucky on Wednesday.In the first half, Kentucky outshot the Hoosiers 4-2 and had eight corner kick opportunities, though the Wildcats didn’t capitalize on any of them.Even though his players were playing into the wind during the first half, Yeagley had some words for his players in the locker room.“The conditions were tough in the first half, but we had a good talk with a lot of emotion at halftime,” Yeagley said. “The weather was tough, and we certainly weren’t playing well, but we came out with that fighter mentality and found ways to get things done. We’ve done well at that this year.”Oftentimes, that has been because of the foot of freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta. Wednesday was no different.Just more than 10 minutes into the second half, the Hoosiers had an opportunity for a corner kick. After the ball sailed through the air, bouncing around between both teams, a Kentucky player inadvertently touched the ball with his hand, giving Zavaleta a penalty kick opportunity.He capitalized, scoring his team-leading eighth goal of the year.“We’ve had a couple PK’s this year, but we’ve yet to hit one,” Zavaleta said. “But I wanted to step up, and nothing was going to stop me, weather or not, and I buried it.”Zavaleta and his teammates controlled the ball for most of the rest of the second half, holding Kentucky to defending for much of the rest of the game while giving themselves more chances to tack on another goal.With 8:33 left, sophomore midfielder Nikita Kotlov gave his team the insurance goal as he bent the ball into the top right corner of Kentucky’s net, bringing the sparse crowd of Hoosiers fans to their feet.“The defense didn’t follow me,” Kotlov said. “I took a touch, I saw I had room for the shot and I took it, and it went in. I was trying to curl it away from the keeper, and I think I knew it was in as soon as I saw it go up.”After its three-game losing streak earlier in the season, Indiana has now won three straight, all in a similar fashion. With zero goals in the first half in any of those games, the Hoosiers haven’t played their best soccer, but they’ve found a way to win, Yeagley said.“We had a pretty quiet locker room after the game, but I think our guys knew after our talk that the second half was a lot more like how we normally play,” Yeagley said. “We still found the result we wanted, but each team we play the rest of this year is going to be better and better, and that could hurt us.”Zavaleta, last week’s Big Ten Player of the Week, was all smiles after the game, feeling positive about his team’s turnaround in the second half and his game-winning goal.“I came in wanting to help the team, no matter if I get goals or if it’s someone else,” Zavaleta said. “But we’ve got to get wins. It’s coming down to crunch time, and we’ve got to win games, both Big Ten and non-conference. It was good to get another goal and good to get another win.”
(10/19/11 3:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They aren’t quite the Three Musketeers, but senior Alec Purdie, sophomore Nikita Kotlov and freshman Eriq Zavaleta have had no problem leading the IU men’s soccer team.“Eriq’s obviously doing a great job up top,” senior defender Tommy Meyer said. “He’s finding goals at crucial times. Purdie’s scoring goals. Nikita’s up there now. We’ve got a solid top three.”But if the three potential Musketeers play up front, then add a fourth: Meyer and his defense of the backfield.He’s the one, after all, who’s seen the field against Kentucky for the past three years.After the team’s 4-1 victory against Big Ten foe Michigan on Saturday, it appears the IU men’s soccer team leaders have refocused their team after its three-game skid a few weeks ago.But tonight, as they take on border-rival Kentucky at Jerry Yeagley Field, the No. 19 Hoosiers will have a whole new challenge to conquer.“Over the four years, they’ve always had teams that are real physical,” Meyer said. “But this year we’ve heard that they like to play a little bit more. Basically we got to keep the ball in their half instead of them coming at us.”Although Kentucky comes into the matchup unranked, they have a roster filled with international talent unparalleled by any team IU has played thus far.Kentucky head coach Ian Collins, who has coached the Wildcats for 15 seasons, hails from across the pond in England. With his international connection, he has started a tradition of building his teams with players from all around the world.“He (Collins) has found some very good ones from all over, and that’s seemed to be his strategy throughout the years,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “Kentucky’s players, especially their international ones, are always very confident and mature, both mentally and physically.”Collins’s team this year contains 10 players originally from outside the United States, including five players from his native England. Yeagley said oftentimes international players have more energy and more of a drive, which he’s been working with his players this week to help prepare for.“These kids are always very hungry,” Yeagley said. “ Oftentimes this is their only opportunity to get a good education, and they come from a tougher background, and this gives them more of an edge. They’ve been growing up around soccer their whole lives — it’s their culture — and our guys will have to try and adapt to that.”IU contrasts Kentucky’s large international base with more than half of its players coming from the Hoosier state. This year in particular, it’s seen a good amount of success in its Indiana recruiting.The team’s co-leaders in points, Zavaleta and Purdie, both hail from Indiana, with Zavaleta from Westfield, Ind., and Purdie from Elkhart, Ind.The duo have combined for 32 of the team’s 74 points through 13 games. They’ve also each picked up two Big Ten Player of the Week awards each along the way.But even with all the awards and points, Yeagley still said he expects more from his team.“We’ve been watching a lot of video this week,” Yeagley said. “We’ve had our good periods here and there, but we haven’t put together a full 90 minutes of solid soccer. We’re looking for that perfect game, and we need all the parts to come together.”That’s what Yeagley expects tonight. Even though Kentucky comes in dropping four of its last five games, Yeagley said he knows his players will see a great game from their regional foe.“We’ve had lots of good games with them throughout the years,” he said. “You’re always physical, but anytime you play a border rival like Kentucky, there’s going to be some very high emotions. ”
(10/12/11 4:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With three straight losses in an eight-day stretch after starting the season 6-0-2, there’s no doubt the Hoosiers are looking for a win.Today, as the IU men’s soccer team faces in-state rival Butler at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis, no one wants that win more than sophomore Jamie Vollmer.Vollmer played high school club soccer for a member of the Butler coaching staff in Carmel, Ind. That, combined with its proximity to his Westfield, Ind., home, led him to Butler to begin his college soccer career, he said.“They were really good guys, and their coaching style really led me to Butler as I went through my college search,” Vollmer said. “It was really close to home, would give me a really good education and just seemed like the right fit.”In his first season as a Bulldog, Vollmer and his teammates enjoyed more success than Vollmer had dreamed. They finished the season undefeated, won the Horizon League Championship and made a trip to the NCAA tournament.But after Butler Head Coach Kelly Findley left the team in the offseason for a job at N.C. State, Vollmer said he felt it was time to make a switch.One of his former high school teammates, freshman Eriq Zavaleta, who had already committed to IU, saw Vollmer was interested in looking into other schools. Zavaleta was able to convince Vollmer to give Indiana a shot. “I was the first one to come to him and say, ‘We’d love to have you here, and I’m sure Coach Yeagley would love to have you,’” Zavaleta said. “And it was an option he looked into, and now he’s here, which is great.”Zavaleta said even with one year of college soccer under his belt, he’s already seen Vollmer make great strides as a player. He said his former high school teammate can do it all on the field now that he runs with him on Jerry Yeagley Field in Bloomington. In college soccer, a player is allowed to transfer once without having to redshirt a season.“I can tell that he’s matured as a player after playing against better players in D-I college soccer,” Zavaleta said. “And now, on the field, his throw-ins are dangerous. He brings energy to the field that we don’t see, and he buzzes around to field and helps with defending and attacking. He does it all.”After honing his skills with the help of their program, Zavaleta knows Vollmer would like nothing better than to go to Indianapolis and get a win against his former team.“This is a game that’s been circled on his calendar for a while,” Zavaleta said. “He wants to send a message that he transferred here for a reason, and I think he’ll do well. He’ll rise to the challenge, and his experience against those players, I think, will make the difference.”Vollmer said he agrees. After weeks when he said he’s been in contact with several of his old teammates and friends from Butler — without any trash-talking, he added — he said he wants nothing more than a win against his old team.“That’s the only thing on my mind — I want to win,” Vollmer said. “It’d be really hard to lose to my team from last year. I’m excited to go back and see some of my good friends and hopefully have a great game.”Though he doesn’t expect too many of his old friends to be donning the cream and crimson, Vollmer said he does think back to his days as a Bulldog, and one thing sticks out that he hopes he can bring to his new team in Bloomington.“I love how we were winning with that team,” Vollmer said. “It was a group of guys who wanted to win so badly and always found a way.”
(10/06/11 3:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With 18 minutes left in regulation, junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner and his teammates thought they had it all wrapped up.The Hoosiers had scored a quick goal in each half Wednesday night against No. 11 Louisville at Jerry Yeagley Field, and with a 2-0 lead against a team coming off two losses, the team appeared to be in control.“We were executing our game plan perfectly, playing well, keeping the ball when we needed to, pressuring when we needed to. We were kind of in cruise control,” senior midfielder Alec Purdie said.But in the span of less than a minute, Louisville stormed back with two goals, pushing the game into overtime.“A 2-0 lead is one of the more difficult ones to psychologically manage once it’s lost, but once we got through it, we got back into our rhythm,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said.Less than five minutes into the extra period, Soffner watched yet another one fly past him into the back of the net. Kenney Walker had scored his second goal of the game, leaving Soffner and his teammates sitting on the field in despair.“It’s tough,” Yeagley said. “We came into this game against the team who played in the final and could have easily won a national championship last year, and we outplayed them in every category. But they made a couple plays late and we lost a little belief in the key moment.”Freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta scored IU’s first goal of the game, about 11 minutes in.Going into halftime, Yeagley said he was very pleased with how his team had rebounded after Sunday’s loss against Wisconsin.“We went into half and continued to talk about what we continued to do, and be very aware of where their strengths lie,” Yeagley said.It appeared they had Louisville figured out. Less than 11 minutes into the second half, Purdie scored off a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts. Petts’s ball connected with sophomore midfielder Jacob Bushue’s head before hitting the ground, where Purdie drilled it into the back of the net.But the tables began to turn as Louisville’s Colin Rolfe added in Louisville’s first goal with 17:05 left.Walker then took control of the game, scoring less than a minute after Rolfe before putting the game winner past Soffner in overtime.Yeagley, though, told his players to keep their heads up after a close game with last year’s runner-up.“Now we know where we are,” Yeagley said. “I feel this group now should be able to hold their head high and know they’re capable of playing with anyone. This was the best team we’ve played, and our guys rose to the occasion and performed very well. It’s just unfortunate that a few moments slipped away and we couldn’t get the result.”
(10/05/11 3:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last year, both their seasons ended at the hands of the eventual national champions. Now, they’re both ranked within the top 15 and are both coming off devastating losses.For one, it’s the IU men’s soccer team’s first loss of the season, and for the other, it was a double-overtime loss to the No. 1 team in the country, Connecticut.Today’s match at Jerry Yeagley Field, featuring No. 10 Indiana and No. 11 Louisville, has the makings of a classic.IU’s focus for the beginning of this week was not preparing for Louisville but coping with and putting behind its first loss of the season, a 2-0 defeat to Big Ten foe Wisconsin on Sunday in Madison, Wis.This loss put an end to a couple of streaks, including junior Luis Soffner’s goalless streak of almost 395 minutes. Soffner said he’ll use the goals he gave up as something to learn from and help motivate himself for the game against Louisville.“The defense and the rest of the team definitely thrived off the streak, and it felt good knowing I was helping the team,” Soffner said. “But Sunday was something to learn from, and hopefully I can get another streak going.”Starting another scoreless streak against Louisville won’t be an easy task.The Cardinals have scored 15 goals this season in nine games, just short of IU’s potent offense, which has scored 17 times in nine games.The key is simply taking away their chances, senior defender Tommy Meyer said. It’s something Meyer and his defenders failed to do after Wisconsin’s two goals off corner kicks Sunday.“Of course, we don’t want to give up any goals,” Meyer said. “But we’ve really got to prevent those dangerous situations that Wisconsin had in the box against us on Sunday where we gave away two goals.”If Meyer and Soffner can keep up their ends of the deal, it’ll come down to whether senior midfielder Alec Purdie, IU’s most dangerous offensive threat this season, or his other teammates, can find the back of the net.“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Purdie said. “On days like Sunday when you miss a ton of kicks, you just know it’s not your day. But we almost always outshoot our opponents, so we create a lot of chances, and I’m always pretty positive that we’re going to get one at some point.”Purdie said Sunday’s lack of success has, in a way, motivated him and his teammates even more, giving them a feeling that they have something to prove after their first loss of the season.Combined with playing their highest-ranked opponent of the season, knowing the Hoosier Army will be in full force at home and Louisville is last year’s NCAA tournament runner-up, Purdie and his teammates have all the motivation they need to try and give Louisville its third straight loss.“If anything, Sunday’s made us even hungrier,” Purdie said. “We’re really looking forward to Wednesday night for our battle against Louisville, who actually lost a rough game this past weekend.“They’re going to be bitter, too, but there’s no doubt in our mind that we can get a win. There’s nothing stopping us from getting a win Wednesday, and we’re pretty confident right now.”
(10/05/11 3:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>These soccer fans showed up hours before the game. They brought signs of all sorts, along with a cardboard cutout of the coach’s face, and waved it through the air in support all night.They never sat down. They booed bad calls, and they seemed to pulsate when their team scored a game-winning goal. Rowdy European soccer fans?No, the IU men’s soccer team’s new Hoosier Army.Utilizing both Facebook and Twitter, the men’s soccer team’s newly founded student fan section has blossomed from a simple idea early last summer into a nationwide movement with almost 1,000 members spanning across the country.“Back in the summer, we had a meeting with the coaches and marketing just to throw out ideas,” said Melanie Schneider, assistant director of media relations for IU Athletics. “Having worked at schools that have had supporter groups or student groups, I thought, ‘Why not have one have one here (for) this large fan base? Why not bring it together and make it soccer specific?’” What first started as a simple Facebook group, though, has turned into what seems to the players and coaches as almost another man on the field.“We haven’t had an atmosphere like that in a long time,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said after the game against Penn State. “It wasn’t the biggest crowd we’ve had, but that was a loud, festive, fun environment for our players to play in.”To the players, the Hoosier Army’s presence certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed.“I’ve always said we have the best fans in the country,” senior captain Alec Purdie said. “They travel with us, whether it’s California or the East Coast. We always have fans wherever we go.”Purdie said the Hoosier Army deserves credit for IU’s 3-0 home record.“They do a good job getting into the other teams’ heads,” Purdie said. “I have guys that play against us who say (the Hoosier Army is) starting to affect them a bit. This is such a difficult place to come to and play with this fortress we have back here. It’s the way it always used to be and a very difficult place to come in and get a result.”Since its inception, Schneider has been flooded with emails requesting the group’s T-shirts, scarves or membership, not only in Bloomington, but around the country, she said.“Even people who can’t necessarily attend, we’ve had people sign up from all over the country that just think it’s a great idea and want to be a part of the Hoosier Army,” Schneider said. “We thought the initial year might be small, but it’s gone way beyond what we expected.”One benefit the Hoosier Army has is Bill Armstrong Stadium. Because of the track that surrounds the soccer field, the Hoosier Army has been placed right on the track, running right to the edge of the field.“It gives you some extra confidence,” Yeagley said. “You love it when they make it difficult for an opponent, and when you make a great play and you hear them hootin’ and hollerin’ a bit, it just gives you a lift.”Though the Hoosier Army bleachers seemed close to capacity during IU’s last home game, Yeagley said as long as students attend, the staff will find room for them.“We’d like to expand as much as we can,” Yeagley said. “The administration has said as long as more keep coming, we’ll figure out where to put them. I want to have some issues on where to put the fans because they can certainly affect the game.”
(10/03/11 2:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After stopping every ball that came his way for almost 400 minutes in the span of four games, including three shutouts, senior Luis Soffner finally let one through. And then another. And after falling behind for the first time all season, the Hoosiers were never able to regain the lead Sunday, falling to Wisconsin 2-0 at the McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison, Wisc.In the 54th minute, Soffner and the Hoosiers faced a corner kick, one similar to those Soffner and his defenders had stopped every time for more than three games.As the ball flew in, Badger Nick Janus headed it off the cross bar, where it fell to fellow Badger Tomislav Zadro’s feet, and he kicked it past Soffner for the first time in 392:55 of game time.In games past, Soffner said he and his teammates would have cleared a ball like that, but “the ball just didn’t roll our way tonight.”Soffner had given up goals this season before. The goalkeeper gave up three goals in two games during the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament in South Bend, Ind. earlier in the year, as well as giving up a goal against Saint Louis in the Hoosiers’ first game of the season.In those three games, Soffner’s teammates also scored eight goals to help power IU to three wins. At Wisconsin, the Hoosiers just couldn’t get the goals to drop.“Simply put, we didn’t play our best tonight,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “We played well enough to create several chances, but we lacked a bit of an edge in that tight, physical game.”In the first half, the Hoosiers out-shot the Badgers 6-2, had five corner kicks and controlled the possession for much of the first 45 minutes, but they failed to capitalize. Yeagley, though, went into halftime with a good feeling, thinking it was only time until his team got something to fall.“We played pretty good, but our anticipation was a little off, and we didn’t have the edge we needed,” Yeagley said. “But I told our guys that we needed to go into the second half and continue to pressure them and just play a little sharper.”Things didn’t get any better in the second half. After giving up the first goal, the Hoosiers had a chance to knot the game 1-1 after Bushue was taken down in the box, giving IU a penalty kick. Sophomore Harrison Petts was elected to take the shot, but Wisconsin goalkeeper Max Jentsch dove down to the right for the save.As Yeagley and his team come back to Bloomington for a two-game home stand this week, including No. 8 Louisville and No. 2 Creighton, he said his players are hungrier than ever after the loss.“I wish we could play tomorrow, honestly,” Yeagley said. “But these guys are going to be hungry to play, and even though Louisville will be the favorites (in Wednesday’s game), it’s going to be a battle.”Soffner, too, will be ready for Wednesday’s game against Louisville, saying both goals he gave up Sunday didn’t phase him at all.“I don’t doubt myself one percent,” Soffner said.
(09/30/11 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two years ago, as a junior soccer player at Neuqua Valley High School in Wisconsin, Patrick Doody hoped he would one day play college ball under Todd Yeagley.But he didn’t dream it would have been for Indiana.In December 2008, after six years on the sidelines in Bloomington as an assistant coach, current IU Coach Yeagley took the head coaching position at Wisconsin. He coached the Badgers for one season before eventually returning to IU.When he returned, several players with their sights set on playing for him in Madison, Wis., followed him to Bloomington, including Doody.“I loved Wisconsin,” Doody said. “It’s an incredible school, and a lot of my friends play on Wisconsin’s team. And it definitely would have been an option for me had Coach stayed. I was fortunate enough that when Coach took the job here, he was still interested in me.”As Yeagley settled back into Bloomington and began to build the Hoosier team that he’d lived around for much of his life, Doody was one player he hoped he could land.“Patrick was one I had my eye on when I was at Wisconsin and felt like he would be a big-time contributor, and as soon as I was here, that feeling didn’t change,” Yeagley said. “He’s doing a really nice job as a freshman contributing in a few different roles with his work ethic, his pace and his willingness to learn.”When the Hoosiers travel to Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon for IU’s second Big Ten contest of the season, both Doody and Yeagley will return to some familiar faces.For Doody, those will be his parents and cousins who live in Naperville, Ill., where he grew up, only two and a half hours away from Wisconsin’s campus.For Yeagley, those will be the players, coaches and staff members he recruited and worked with for his single season as a Badger — people whom he knew only briefly, but with whom he made lasting relationships.“It’ll have some emotions to it, knowing I invested a lot of time and energy and created relationships with the players and staff,” Yeagley said. “But in our sport, like any sport, you’ve got a job to go in and get a result. It’ll be nice to go back and visit Madison, but certainly we want to perform well and get results.”With Doody and the rest of his players on the No. 6 team in the country, Yeagley said he is confident this weekend’s game will simply be another testament to the hungry, determined team he now calls his own.“The game is going to be won between the white lines, and our preparation has been very good,” Yeagley said. “It’s going to be a confident team going in and a hungry team, and when we play with that passion and fight, we’re a pretty effective team at this point.”
(09/29/11 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Most students in their senior year of high school are preoccupied with completing college applications, worrying about scholarships, the last football game and who to ask to prom.But learning an entirely new sport?While IU sophomore defender Matt McKain’s parents enrolled him in nearly every sport available, he chose to focus on soccer, which he began playing at age five. He played for his high school team at Columbus North High School. But amidst the craziness of his senior year and after persuasion from some of his soccer teammates, McKain decided to take on a new sport: volleyball.The program, run by Coach Shannon Burch, was in its fourth year and had about 20 players, all of whom were seniors. But to Burch, McKain stood out.“He was always above the curve,” Burch said. “He was easily one of my top athletes for that season, and even just as a raw athlete who hadn’t played this sport before. He excelled from day one.”It’s a little-known fact to most outsiders, but volleyball players are allowed to use not only their hands and arms, but also their feet . Burch said in the past, other soccer players had tried using their feet in returning volleys or for passing, but most attempts had been erratic and unsuccessful.McKain started with an advantage and built on it.“Most guys had tried out kicking it, but Matt really caught on quick,” Burch said. “He had great ball control and was able to track the ball and position himself better than most.”IU redshirt freshman midfielder Dylan Lax , who met McKain in club soccer when McKain was six, played on McKain’s high school soccer team. Although Lax didn’t have time to play volleyball with his long-time friend as he wished, he still attended several of the games and said McKain looked like a perfect fit.“His competitiveness really stood out, whether he was on the soccer field or the volleyball court," Lax said. “He was always alert and ready to play, always a leader no matter what team he was on. And he adapted really well to a new sport, similarly to how he adapted when he came (to IU) and learned a new position.”With the help of McKaim, the Columbus North boy’s volleyball team put together a successful season. h ey qualii ed for the state tournament at the end of his McKain’s senior year. But in the end, one thing slightly more important stood in their way.“We had planned all year on signing up (for the state tournament) but when it got to that time, we realized that it was on the day of our graduation and, us all being seniors, we just couldn’t really make it work,” McKain said.Coming to IU with opportunities to play intramural sports, including men’s volleyball, McKain said he’s always wished he could get involved with another league simply because he loved the competition.But to him, his soccer team and soccer teammates always come first. After one season coaching him , that’s what Burch noticed the most.“He was a very wellconditioned athlete, but what was best was his mental attitude,” Burch said. “He knew when to be competitive, but he also knew when it was time to be there for his teammates."
(09/26/11 4:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As sophomore A.J. Corrado’s pass came sailing through the air, senior Alec Purdie had just one thought on his mind as he stood by Penn State’s right goal post.Not when he would jump, not where in the goal he was going to try to put the ball — none of that seemed to matter.“I just wanted to get it past the goalkeeper and into the net,” Purdie said. He did just that. The lone goal gave No. 7 IU a 1-0 victory against No. 16 Penn State on Friday at Jerry Yeagley Field. The squad is now 6-0-2.Even though the win secured an undefeated start to their Big Ten season for the 21st straight time in program history, and even though it was its first win against a ranked opponent this season, it certainly wasn’t their best, IU Coach Todd Yeagley said.“It’s a great game. Penn State was very good on the night, but we can play much better,“ Yeagley said. “To get a result and knowing that we weren’t at our best was a positive for this team.”In the first half, Penn State’s defense had the upper hand. Going into the game, the Nittany Lion defense was yet to give up a first half goal this season, and IU’s offense had outscored its opponents 11-2 in the first half. “Penn State wanted to slow the game down with all those out of bounds at the get go,” Yeagley said. “They pressured us well, and our attack was not as fluid as it has been. It was good in bits and pieces, but we can play a lot better.”Indiana did have their chances, though. Less than six minutes into the game, it appeared that senior defender Chris Estridge headed in a goal off a corner kick, but the goal was called back due to an offsides penalty.It would be more than 70 minutes later when IU had another opportunity as great as the one from Estridge. They wouldn’t miss that time.Corrado lofted the ball from the top of the box over the heads of numerous Penn State defenders, right to where Purdie was jockeying for position. The ball connected with Purdie’s head and sailed into the back of the net.“The ball came across the top of the 18 and A.J. Corrado — a great guy for a pass, second to none — gave me a perfect ball, and I couldn’t miss it,” Purdie said. But without another shutout in goal by junior Luis Soffner, Purdie’s goal may not have been enough. Soffner has now logged a current scoreless streak of nearly 340 straight minutes in the box.“He’s been great for us this year,” Estridge said. “He’s been just a rock in the back and made a lot of huge saves for us.”Yeagley reiterated the same message, saying how much he’s seen Soffner grow in his two years as a starter for the Hoosiers.“Luis’s really feeling good right now, and for a player who’s been a two-year starter who’s had ups and downs in those two years, I couldn’t bee more proud of him,” Yeagley said. “He’s not the finished product yet, but our goalkeeping team has pushed him to a new level.”As Yeagley and his team go on to play more highly ranked opponents this season and in games with more at stake, they knew all along that this first Big Ten game was one they had to win.“Penn State was a ranked opponent, but our focus was starting the Big Ten season with a win, whether it was Penn State or whomever, ranked or not ranked,” Yeagley said. “The Big Ten regular season is a very different season, and after winning it last year, they (his players) really understand how hard it is and how good it feels to accomplish that.”