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(09/23/11 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Against ranked opponents this season, the IU men’s soccer team has seen only zeros. IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s team has played then-No. 12 Notre Dame and then-No. 14 St John’s to 0-0 ties.But as the team opens its Big Ten season Friday night at home against No. 16 Penn State, Yeagley and his players hope to add both goals and a win to their resumé.“In both games (against ranked opponents) we had our chances to get results, and we’ve shown up in both games on the road in tough environments,” Yeagley said. “We’ve just got to be aggressive, get after them, dictate the rhythm and be sharp, and I think we do that well.”The No. 7 Hoosiers are entering this Big Ten season as the defending regular season champions after going 4-1-1 conference play during the 2010 regular season. Last season, IU beat Penn State, 3-2, at State College, Pa.But when it counted most in last year’s Big Ten conference semifinals, also hosted by Penn State, the Hoosiers fell 2-1 to the Nittany Lions after giving up two unanswered goals.Yeagley says this year’s team is different. It isn’t concerned with the past, and it doesn’t need any extra motivation to give Penn State its best come Friday night.“We aren’t worried about what happened last game, let alone last year,” Yeagley said. “This one has Big Ten ramifications and we want to keep our streak alive, but these guys are already mentally tough. It’s a different team, a different challenge.”Sophomore Jamie Vollmer will face his own challenge Friday night.Vollmer, who played his first years of college soccer at Butler, will face former teammate Julian Cardona, who also transferred after last season.“I’m excited. It’ll be the first time since the end of last year that I’ve seen him (Cardona), so it’ll be nice to play against an old teammate,” Vollmer said. “But at the same time, we’re in for a good game against them. They have five wins, too, so it’ll be a tough way to start out the Big Ten season.”Through seven games last season, IU was just 4-3 with 14 goals to its name. But this season, the Hoosiers have started the season with a 5-0-2 record and 16 goals, which they credit to their speed at the start of games.The team has outscored its opponents 11-2 in the first half this season, but with Penn State shutting out its last four opponents and yet to give up a first-half goal, Yeagley said getting out to a quick start against the Nittany Lions will be Friday’s key.“We always want to be the aggressor every game, but we also have to be consistent for 90 minutes,” Yeagley said. “So far this year, our mentality has been rewarded. It’s shown that we’re starting games ready to roll.”It’s that fighting mentality, Yeagley said, that will be the difference Friday. With four Big Ten Player of the Week awards in four weeks and the Big Ten leaders in points, goals scored, assists and saves, the Hoosiers will come onto Jerry Yeagley Field on Friday night with a target on their backs, Yeagley said.But even without all the accolades and awards, Yeagley said his players know that pressure for the IU men’s soccer program is second nature.“We talk to the team all the time. Whether we’re unranked or number one, IU is always going to have a target,” he said. “It’s why people come here, to get every team’s best, and it really makes our team better in the end.”
(09/15/11 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It can be scary.New school. New team. Nervous jitters because you don’t know anyone, if you’ll get along with the people around you or if it’s really the right fit.But several players on the men’s soccer team haven’t had to make the transition to IU’s campus and soccer program alone.Eleven of the 28 players on this year’s roster played at least part of their high school careers with someone else on the team. Four schools around Indiana and one in St. Louis contributed multiple Hoosiers to the team.It’s not necessarily a goal of IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s staff to bring pairs of players in together, he said, but it helps.“When we recruit, we recruit the best players from around the state and the country according to our needs as a team,” Yeagley said. “But it’s worked out that there’s more talent from around here, and that’s boded well for us.”Senior Tommy Meyer and redshirt juniors Chris Haffner and Luis Soffner can trace their playing days back to their early teens when they played U-10 club soccer together in St. Louis. The trio joined forces with former IU soccer star Will Bruin at the club level when they were 14, and the bonds began to form.But Bruin played for De Smet Jesuit High School while the other three played for St. Louis University High School, so when it wasn’t club season, the three players from SLUH grew even closer, learning how each other played and learning their tendencies both on and off the field.When senior year rolled around and it came time to start narrowing down college choices, the three shared the same sentiment about whether they should all chose the same school or part ways.“We talked about it a little bit, because IU was after all three of us, but it wasn’t a deciding factor,” Soffner said. “IU was the only school we all had in common, but it turned out to be the right fit.”Each player took separate college visits to other schools around the country, but when it came time to visit IU, they made the trip together. That was when they realized they had to take advantage of a great opportunity.“After our trips to IU, we started saying, ‘Would you guys really want to do this?’ Haffner said, “It was obvious to us that IU was an opportunity you couldn’t pass on.”For Meyer, Indiana meant something more to him than it did to the others.By committing to IU, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who also played IU soccer.“There was just that tradition,” Meyer said. “My dad played there, and I pretty much grew up around it, and once I had an opportunity, there wasn’t any turning back.”Bruin was the first to declare his college choice during the players’ senior year. Knowing in advance that he was one of the best players they had ever played with or against, the three SLUH players all knew that joining forces with him again could be pretty special, Soffner said.“Will kind of pulled the trigger,” Soffner said. “We knew he was one of the best, and his commitment was a helpful hint that IU might be the place. We all narrowed our vision, and it was almost a chain reaction.”For Soffner, as he was narrowing down his choices between IU and two East Coast schools, it came down to not only where his close friends were going, but what was right for his family.“Both my parents work, and with being only three or four hours away, it was a lot easier on them to come and see me, and they could travel with the other families, “ Soffner said. “It just felt like home.”When they all arrived at IU, they realized they had made the right choice.“When we came to IU, with the tradition of the program, it was really pretty overwhelming,” Haffner said. “But having those other guys with me, going through the same thing together, it put me a little more at ease and made everything much more comfortable.”Yeagley said he worried, though, that forming another team with groups of players from the same high schools might be a tough task.“There could often times be a problem with guys not getting along or only associating with guys they’re familiar with, but not this group,” Yeagley said. “These are all personable kids, and they all get along with the entire team.”After three years in Bloomington, the feeling is the same. Although working with a different set of players and coaches than they did in high school may have changed each of their games a little bit, they said they still feel that coming here together has always given them an edge on the field.“When you’ve been playing within twenty yards of someone for six, seven, eight years, you really get to know them,” Soffner said. “We’ve got that inner connection, that family feeling, and it’s great to know you have guys to fall back on.”
(09/14/11 3:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After roughly half the men’s soccer team’s scoring was lost to the MLS when former Hoosier Will Bruin was drafted by the Houston Dynamo, one concern was, simply, who would score?IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s team has met the challenge in full stride. After five games, the team sports a 4-0-1 record, the tie coming in a tough battle against then No. 12 Notre Dame.Through five games with last season’s Sweet 16 team, the Hoosiers were only 2-3, with all three losses coming to unranked opponents.In those five games, Bruin made up nearly half of IU’s production with four of their nine goals. Bruin also accounted for 18 of the team’s 37 goals last season.But this season, Yeagley has witnessed several new stars rise to fill Bruin’s gap. The team has already combined for 13 goals in five games this season, even with the shutout tie against Notre Dame. Senior forward Alec Purdie has taken a leadership role, with four goals thus far to lead the team, including two in the team’s win over Bucknell.Since the team faces four ranked opponents in its next six games, fans will have a good barometer to see if the team’s offensive firepower can continue.
(09/12/11 4:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After losing almost half of their offensive production in the offseason when Will Bruin left for the MLS, the IU men’s soccer team faced a monumental question going into this season: who would score?But after this weekend’s Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament, the Hoosiers may have found their man. He played under the spotlight of his senior season and just miles away from his home in Elkhart, Ind. Senior forward Alec Purdie scored three goals for the weekend, powering his team to wins against Bucknell and Denver for the tournament title.Friday night, it was Purdie’s quick start that propelled IU to its third win of the season. Purdie scored his first goal of the night in the 20th minute in a scramble around the Bison goal, rebounding a shot from sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts.Just three minutes later, Purdie capitalized again with his second goal of the game and third of the season.“Purdie played really well all weekend,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “He just does a great job at being effective, and when he’s on, he’s tough to deal with.”Bucknell came out firing in the second half, though, and after an own-goal off an IU player in the 61st minute and another goal in the 69th, IU’s clean record seemed to be in jeopardy.With just 13 minutes left to play in regulation, freshman Eriq Zavaleta saw the ball roll his way and drilled it into the back of the net for his third goal of the season. It also earned the team’s third win of the season.In the latter match of the weekend, the Hoosiers again wasted no time. Senior Chris Estridge scored in seven minutes off an assist from Purdie. It was the fourth time the team has scored in the first 20 minutes of a match this season.Purdie made his mark again 23 minutes into the match via a misplayed ball by Denver goalkeeper Mate Aguirre.As Aguirre attempted to punch the ball away, Purdie stole the ball and sunk his third goal of the tournament.After a goal late in the first half, Denver tried to send the game into overtime in the closing seconds by bringing Aguirre up on a corner kick to gain the one-man advantage.They got off two shots that barely missed, and IU snuck away with its fourth win of the season, the team’s best start since 2005.Along with teammates Estridge, sophomore Jacob Bushue and redshirt freshman Kerel Bradford, Purdie earned a spot on the All-Tournament team for his early striking efforts.Yeagley said he hopes Purdie and his teammates continue striking early next weekend.They will travel to the East Coast for a match against St. John’s on Friday before ending their four-game road trip with Rutgers on Sunday.“We really try to get our guys to go into games ‘attack-minded,’ not wanting them to sit back and wait for the other team to act,” Yeagley said. “When you create chances and execute, you put teams on their heels — they can’t sit back anymore, and often times you score a few more.”
(09/09/11 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three years ago, Mike Freitag and Todd Yeagley stood on the same sideline.They wore the same colors. They shared the same plays.They had one common goal: recruit the best for that eighth star.But in November 2009, Freitag was shown the way out, and then-Wisconsin coach Todd Yeagley, son of the legendary IU soccer coach Jerry Yeagley, was ushered in.On Sunday, Yeagley’s Hoosiers and Freitag’s Denver Pioneers will meet, but Yeagley and his team aren’t focusing on that match.Their mentality is to win the next one, Yeagley said, and that starts with Bucknell.After two wins last weekend in the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic against St. Louis and Dayton, the No. 10-ranked men’s soccer team is back in action this weekend in South Bend for the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament. They will face Bucknell and Denver.“Bucknell only lost two starters (from last season),” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “But our focus is on our performance. Our performance the first weekend and the second weekend was not necessarily our opponents, but our focus and energy.”The Hoosiers will kick off tournament action Friday at 5 p.m. against Bucknell, who is 2-1-1 on the season. This match will be IU’s first meeting against the Bison and the second time the team has ever played an opponent from the Patriot League.Forward Alec Purdie grew up near the South Bend area. He’s made the trip close to his hometown of Elkhart for a few years now. The senior said he’s looking forward to one last homecoming.“Obviously, I’m expecting two wins, but hopefully there’s a good crowd to come home to, like normal,” Purdie said. “There’s always a good turnout for the team. Four wins under our belt in a row would be huge, but right now, we’re focusing on Friday night, on winning against that team.”IU will then finish tournament play in South Bend on Sunday when the Hoosiers face Freitag and Denver at 11:30 a.m.But Yeagley and Purdie don’t view the game as any sort of rivalry.“I’ll chat with (Freitag) and catch up,” Purdie said. “But at the end of day we’re just looking to get another win.”Yeagley has faced Freitag only once before — in Freitag’s final season, when Yeagley was in his first season with the Badgers.“You’re looking at executing and winning games that you don’t even take a second to think who you’re playing against,” Yeagley said. “It’s about the players and the competition and the game. It’s not about the coaches, and it’s no different then it will be on any game.”Going into the weekend, IU has the offensive upper hand in both matches, having scored nine goals in three games this season, to Bucknell’s seven and Denver’s zero.“We can score a lot of goals every game,” Purdie said. “Nine goals — we probably had six, seven different goal scorers, so it’s spread everywhere. You can’t narrow it down to one person.”
(09/01/11 3:33am)
Transfer students Jamie Vollmer and A.J. Corrado will hit the soccer field this season for the Hoosiers.
(08/26/11 4:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU men’s soccer’s hopes of defending their Big Ten championship took a sizable hit Dec. 29, 2010, when their leading scorer, junior Will Bruin, decided to forego his senior season and pursue a career in Major League Soccer.On Jan. 13, he was selected No. 11 overall by the Houston Dynamo.Bruin, who had 18 goals last season, provided almost half of his team’s offensive production of 37 goals. He was a force both on and off the field, and IU Coach Todd Yeagley said the team will greatly miss him this season.“The biggest thing he gave our team was confidence,” Yeagley said. “You knew as a teammate and as a coach that he was just one play away from changing the game with one goal, and he was an excellent passer as well. He made others better on the field, and we’re still working on filling the void of his dominant personality.”Junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner played with Bruin for two seasons and said the pair were good friends, but it was Bruin’s passion that made teammates admire his play on the field.“He brought this presence that no one else had,” Soffner said. “He almost played mean, and he had that desire and passion to win. You could almost see that fire in his eyes. When he played a tough team or wasn’t playing well, it fueled him, and everyone else kind of fed off him.”At the end of the game, whether his team was ahead, tied or even behind, Bruin’s teammates said they could count on him to make a play when it meant the most. Bruin scored three game-winning goals last season.“It gave us confidence, knowing that we had a guy who could make it happen at the end of the game if we needed a goal,” junior Joe Tolen said. “The confidence we had, knowing we had a player like him, made us a force to be reckoned with every time we stepped on the field.”Because he provided more than a third of the team’s points and almost half the goals, Bruin’s potential off-nights caused problems for the team, Yeagley said.“That’s what always worried me,” Yeagley said. “If Will wasn’t in form that night, the whole team lost confidence in big moments. We weren’t as much of a balanced team as we needed to be last year, but now we’ve got three to five guys who we feel could get a goal any night, and that does help.”The prospect that Yeagley could have a team of three to five confident scorers, plus Bruin’s production, had him very excited for the 2011 season, even after the Hoosiers fell last year 2-1 to eventual national champion Akron in round 16 of the NCAA tournament.But it looked likely Bruin might leave prematurely. After last season, many mock drafts had him being selected in the top 10, and some even as the second or third pick. Few players ever have the hype Bruin received, and it put Yeagley in a tough position as a coach.“It’s tough because I’m held to make Indiana successful and help my athletes achieve goals,” Yeagley said. “Will was at the top of the heap and had a fabulous year and a good opportunity to pursue.”It’s an opportunity Bruin has taken in stride. Since becoming the first Dynamo rookie to ever start on opening day back in March, Bruin has appeared in 21 of the team’s 26 games, recording four goals and one assist.Three of those goals came in a single game on April 29 against D.C. United. There he became the first Dynamo rookie to record a hat trick and the second youngest MLS player to do so, gaining Player of the Week accolades for his performance.Bruin and his Dynamo teammates will step on the field again Aug. 27, the same day that his former Hoosier teammates will play their first regular season game without him on the field.For Bruin, it will likely be just another day in his first season that has made him a contender for Rookie of the Year.For Yeagley and his players, it will be a day of answering questions and beginning to fill the massive gap Bruin left behind.“With a player like Will, he’s impossible to replace,” Tolen said. “There’s no way we’re going to have one guy score 18 goals for us this season. His presence is definitely going to be missing from this team — I mean, he’s one of the best players in the country — but we’re confident that we can get a combination of different players and pick up right where we left off.”
(08/23/11 2:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Assistant coaches under famed former Indiana Coach Jerry Yeagley helped the Indiana men’s soccer program hoist the national championship trophy in both 2003 and 2004. Coaches Todd Yeagley and Caleb Porter returned only a few years after graduating to help their alma mater capture College Cup titles, which had eluded both men during their stints as leaders of the Hoosier soccer team.Last fall Porter, now the head coach at Akron, took up what had become a familiar trophy. But it was Yeagley, now the head coach at Indiana, who proved to be a stepping stone to Porter’s success. Porter’s Zips won a hard-fought 2-1 game against the Hoosiers, sending an old friend packing, en route to a 2010 Men’s Soccer National Championship.Yet even in defeat and with the dense connections between Porter, Yeagley and the IU program, Yeagley sees no rivalry between the Hoosiers and Akron.“They’ve had a good team and had a good run at it last year, and they’ve even had good teams in the past with some tradition,” Yeagley said. “But not as much as our program.”Even as defending national champions and two-time defending College Cup finalists, Yeagley feels Akron may not be the team to beat this year.“They’ve had some great players go through the past two years, but they lost a lot of players after last season,” Yeagley said. “They’re certainly capable, but we won’t focus on them. There are more and more teams each year that can win the championship, and championship teams can take form in many different ways. We’re still trying to find that form here.”It’s a form that will include several new players, including seven incoming freshmen and junior Aris Zafeiratos, a transfer from Bryant and Stratton College. After last season, IU lost four graduating seniors and leading scorer Will Bruin, who was drafted by the Houston Dynamo of the MLS. Redshirt junior Luis Soffner felt like the team needed a bit of a change.“I think last year we didn’t seem very united, and at times there were individuals who put themselves before the team,” Soffner said. “This year we’re very team-oriented. We’re trying to help each other rather than yelling at each other for mistakes, and I think in practice we’ve looked really good.”The returning players, who helped Yeagley win a Big Ten Championship and reach the third round of the NCAA tournament in his first year as head coach, have come back to Bloomington this season without a sense of defeat. The realization that they could play toe-to-toe with the eventual national champions seems to have made Yeagley’s players more confident going into this season, including redshirt junior Joe Tolen.“Anything can happen in a tournament. We know that Akron is a quality team — they went on to win the national championship — and had extremely talented players, but we don’t like to say they were better than us at all,” Tolen said. “And that loss was no different than another. 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. And losing in general gives us that edge, that want to succeed next year.”That “want” is just what Yeagley is looking for. The coach, whose father is the winningest coach in NCAA men’s soccer history, brought six national championships to Indiana in his 31-year tenure. The younger Yeagley grew up around a winning tradition. He was on staff for two championships in 2003 and 2004, and he knows what it takes.“We’ve got to have players perform when the lights are on and the stage is there,” Yeagley said. “We’ve got to have players step up and take that responsibility and thrive in it, want it. We’ve got to get that swagger back, and it’s not there yet, but we’re working on it.”At the end of last season, it was Akron and Porter who had that swagger. They raised the College Cup after defeating Louisville in Santa Barbara, Calif.But the Hoosiers’ game two weeks prior showed Yeagley’s players that with hard work and motivation, there’s no reason that couldn’t be them in the future.“We gave them a battle, an absolute battle, and it could have gone either way, but it was theirs that day,” Yeagley said. “But it showed our players that we can play at that competitive level. We just need a heck of a lot of preparation and difference makers to step up when it’s time to do that.”The team that lost four seniors and Will Bruin was incorrectly listed. The IDS regrets this error.
(08/23/11 2:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After two exhibition games with moments of poor communication, near misses and tough goals, the IU men’s soccer team left the Shindigz National Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind., with only one goal and zero wins for their preseason slate.In front of more than 3,000 fans at the Hefner Fields Complex, the No. 17 ranked Hoosiers played to a 1-1 tie against No. 23 ranked Duke Friday night.The match marked the first time IU has faced a ranked opponent since losing to eventual NCAA champion Akron in the second round of the NCAA tournament last season.IU coach Todd Yeagley took his team into halftime of the Blue Devil game with a 1-0 lead after sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts connected on the second of his two shots in the 34th minute. Petts got the ball off a pass from senior Chris Estridge, who brought the ball up the left side before hitting Petts in the middle where he hammered it home.In the second half, the Hoosiers struggled as Duke gained more momentum on offense, firing more shots at freshman goalkeeper Michael Soderlund in his first game for the cream and crimson.After a punch save early on, Soderlund let one through in the 59th minute when Duke tied the game on a shot from junior Andrew Wenger.Indiana failed to capitalize on a late Duke mistake after a Blue Devil was called for a handball in the box. Senior Alec Purdie took the penalty kick attempt, but Duke junior goalkeeper James Belshaw came up with the save.In the Hoosiers’ second game of the festival, the team got off to a slow start offensively and struggled to communicate.“We’ve just got to get more chemistry out there,” Yeagley said. “We played an excellent team in Xavier. They were well-organized, and they had a better rhythm than we did. We’ll go back and look at our video and work on our mistakes, but you have to make those along the way to improve.”Yet after one half, Yeagley’s crew sat even with Xavier, 0-0, and showed more promise as the second half opened up. The team had opportunities on three early corner kicks, with the third from junior Joe Tolen nearly finding the net.Soderlund, who played the first 69 minutes in goal, showed more fire in the second half as well when he came outside the box to make a play on the ball as Xavier junior Luke Spencer closed in on the Hoosier goal.The two got tangled up in the 59th minute, and Spencer fell hard, resulting in a yellow card for the freshman goalkeeper.But 20 minutes later, in the 79th minute, Xavier sought revenge against senior goalkeeper Nate Mitchell. Xavier freshman Darin Kruzich sent a long cross from the left side in front of IU’s goal, and the ball sailed into the net off Mitchell.IU failed to equalize Kruzich’s goal, losing the game 1-0 and leaving their preseason win column blank.Yeagley and his team begin their 2011 regular season campaign Saturday when Indiana heads to South Bend, Ind., to take on No. 12 ranked Notre Dame.They will try to avenge the team’s 2-1 defeat to the Fighting Irish last season in Bloomington.
(04/29/11 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After finishing just one stroke out of third place in their final regular season tournament, the IU men’s golf team will begin its postseason run Friday in the Big Ten Championship hosted by Purdue in West Lafayette.Two weeks of practice allowed the golfers to refocus from their fifth place finish in Illinois - where a few costly mistakes and late-round surges by Northwestern and Illinois State dropped them just one shot back from a tie for third.Freshman David Mills led the team, with a tie for 13th place with a two-round total of four-over 148 after consecutive rounds of 74.IU will try for a fifth tournament title this season with 36 holes on Friday and another 18 holes both Saturday and Sunday. The team, ranked No. 36 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin ranking, is the fourth-highest ranked team in the conference going into the tournament, following Illinois (No. 13), Iowa (No. 17) and Ohio State (No. 28). Other top-60 Big Ten teams include Michigan (No. 51), Purdue (No. 54) and Northwestern (No. 58).In the Big Ten Championships last season, the Hoosiers posted a sixth-place finish led by former senior Alex Martin, but IU coach Mike Mayer sees no reason the team can’t improve on that finish, or even contend for a title.“This season, we have four players that I think have a realistic chance of winning this golf tournament,” Mayer said. “I don’t think I could say that last year and that’s really big, and that will go a lot towards giving us a real good shot at winning this weekend.”
(04/25/11 1:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a season that featured a couple of near-victories and the first collegiate golf season of standout freshman Lindsay Gahm, the IU women’s golf team finished its season Sunday in Glencoe, Ill., at the Big Ten Women’s Golf Championships. It finished the 72-hole tournament in seventh place with a team score of 1,221, 69 shots over par on the par-72 Lake Shore Country Club golf course.After starting Sunday’s final round in sixth place, the Hoosiers seemed to struggle right out of the gate, with five of the six girls bogeying the first hole of the round, and in the end, dropping them to seventh. Gahm lead the team for the tournament with a 16-over 304 (78-75-76-75) after a final round 75, finishing tied for 21st. IU’s No. 1 seeded player, junior Kristtini Cain, finished Sunday with a 76 after three-straight 77s, landing her in 26th place, just three shots behind Gahm.Sophomore Kate Coons (74-79-79-76), posting a 74, the low round of the tournament for the team in the first round, finished just one shot behind Cain with 308, tied for 27th. Freshman Sophie Hayashi (tied for 29th), sophomore Rosie Davies (tied for 32nd) and senior Lauren Giesecke (tied for 51st) rounded out the team.IU coach Clint Wallman said the conference’s strength was too much for his team over the weekend.“We showed a lot of promise out there this weekend, but we didn’t finish exactly where we wanted to,” he said. “The Big Ten teams are very strong. I mean, Purdue won the NCAAs last year and finished second today to Michigan State. I think we showed great promise this weekend, and though we have a challenge ahead to be able to compete here in the future, we have the people who can do it.”
(04/22/11 2:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After its 10th-place finish in the final regular season tournament at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational, the IU women’s golf team will travel to the Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., for the Big Ten Championships.In one of the team’s worst performances of the season, the Hoosiers shot only three rounds under par. Junior Kristtini Cain was the lone top-30 finisher for the team, ending tied for 28th with a 54-hole score of 241. Freshman standout Lindsay Gahm finished with the best score in the final round for the Hoosiers, shooting a 10-over par 82, landing her in 35th place with a score of 243 (76-85-82).The Hoosiers will see much of the same field in the Big Ten Championships this week, as eight other Big Ten teams competed at Ohio State last weekend, with just Purdue and Michigan absent. IU already saw the course earlier this season when it played in the Lady Northern Invitational, where the team finished sixth out of the 12-team field with three Hoosiers in the top 15.Four of IU’s six competing golfers this weekend will be seeing their first Big Ten Championship action, including freshmen Gahm and Sophie Hayashi, sophomore Rosie Davies and junior Cain.Last year, IU finished fifth in the 2010 Big Ten Championships in Madison, Wis., and sophomore Jacqueline Yanch was the team’s top finisher, tied for 14th as a freshman.“Golf is a very challenging sport,” IU coach Clint Wallman said on the team’s website. “The best thing a golfer can do is have a very short memory, and we’re treating last weekend as last weekend. It was the end of our regular season, and we’re now into our championship season — everyone is zero and zero — and it’s a chance for us to start fresh.”
(04/18/11 2:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Unusually high scores seemed to be the trend at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invite, where the IU women’s golf team played its final regular season tournament before starting the postseason with the Big Ten Championships next week. Joined by eight other Big Ten schools, the Hoosiers finished 10th, 64 shots behind tournament winner Michigan State.The team consistently sat in 10th through all three rounds, shooting 322 in each of the first two rounds before closing the tournament with a final round 338. Junior Kristtini Cain led the team individually, finishing tied for 28th with a 241 and was the only player to shoot in the 70s twice.Freshman Lindsay Gahm finished in 35th, two shots back from Cain after shooting a 76 in the first round. She then stumbled in the final two rounds, shooting an 85 and an 82. Sophomores Jacqueline Yanch and Kate Coons followed, finishing 54th and 63rd respectively.“I think we’re really close, and we all just need to play our own games because we’re all good enough to win the tournament,” Gahm said. “I think we all just need to come together and play well on the same days and see if we can find a win.”
(04/18/11 2:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After sitting in third for most of the tournament, with just holes to go, the IU men’s golf team fell to finish fifth in the Illini Spring Classic on Sunday after two of its top players, juniors David Erdy and Chase Wright, both made double-bogeys on hole 17 of the final round.The team finished with a 36-hole total of 601 after thunderstorms Saturday forced the tournament to be shortened to just two rounds. After a final round 299, the Hoosiers finished just one stroke back from a tie for third with Northwestern and Illinois State.Freshman David Mills was the top finisher for IU in the tournament, finishing tied for 13th after two rounds of 74 on the par-72 course. Mills also struggled to finish, bogeying his final hole of the tournament. Wright (77-72) and Erdy (76-76) finished tied for 18th and 31st, respectively. Sophomores Brant Peaper (75-78) and Corey Ziedonis (82-77) followed, tied for 38th and 61st.The team’s finish at the Stone Creek Golf Club marks the team’s final regular season tournament. The Hoosiers begin their postseason run April 29 when they travel to West Lafayette to play the Kampen Golf Course for the Big Ten Championships.“We need to just take everything one step at a time,” coach Mike Mayer said. “The Big Ten is really wide open, and if we can get everyone firing on all cylinders, I think we have a shot.”— Nathan Brown
(04/15/11 4:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After being host to its lone tournament of the year — the Indiana Invitational at Otter Creek Golf Course — and finishing fourth in the rain-shortened 36-hole tournament, the IU women’s golf team will travel to Columbus, Ohio to play the Scarlet Course in the Lady Buckeye Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.After rain delays virtually canceled play April 4 during the team’s first day of its home tournament, the tournament was shortened to just 36 holes, much of which was played the following day. The team posted rounds of 319 and 303 to finish with 622 for the tournament, 29 shots back from first-place Louisville. Freshman Lindsay Gahm finished first for the team, posting rounds of 76 and 77 to finish tied for eighth with 153.This weekend’s tournament will serve as a good preview for the Big Ten Championships, with eight Big Ten teams joining the Hoosiers, including No. 18 Michigan State, along with No. 17 Kent State, according to the April 12 NCAA coaches rankings.The six-count-four tournament will begin Saturday where the teams will play 36 holes, starting with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. Sunday’s 18 holes, also a shogun start, will begin at 8:30 a.m. as well.
(04/15/11 4:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After the team won its third-straight adidas Hoosier Invitational at their home course, the IU Golf Course, Sunday by 15 strokes and placing four players in the top 10, the IU men’s golf team will travel to Urbana, Ill. for the Illini Spring Classic at Stone Creek Golf Club.The team’s lone home tournament of the season, which included several Indiana schools - including an IU “B” team – saw both IU teams at the top of the leader board after Saturday’s play, with the “A” team sitting at five-under par in first place and the “B” team just two shots behind. After the conclusion of Sunday’s play, the “A” team fought off their teammates, finishing 15 shots ahead of second-place Cleveland State. Junior David Erdy, who finished in second place for individuals, just one shot back from the top medalist, received Big Ten Golfer of the Week honors for his play in the tournament.This weekend’s tournament will serve as a preview of the Big Ten Championships which will be in two weeks in West Lafayette, Ind. with eight other Big Ten schools in the 13-team field, including No. 12 Illinois and No. 22 Ohio State, according to the Golfweek-Sagarin rankings.The team will begin their 36-hole play Saturday with an 8 a.m. shotgun start on the par-72 course. Sunday’s 18 holes will also begin at 8 a.m.“We have one more tune-up before the Big Ten’s and have some preparation time,” coach Mike Mayer said. “But we need to take care of the little things better; I think in the big picture we do well, but we’ve had some three-putts that are pretty uncalled for. It’s not the big things – we’re not going to his the ball any farther or straighter – but if we can take care of opportunities when they present themselves, we’ll be good.”
(04/11/11 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As players from most every other team huddled around a small, not even 20-inch television inside the pro shop watching the Masters, the IU men’s golf team was down the hill, gazing at the leader board and its third-straight adidas Hoosier Invitational title Sunday at the IU Golf Course.After the first round Saturday, where thunderstorms delayed much of the play until late in the afternoon, both the men’s “A” and “B” teams stood atop the leader board.The “A” team was led by junior David Erdy with a three-under 68, just two shots ahead of the teams’ cumulative five-under par (279).Sophomore Michael McGee joined Erdy in a tie for third with a 68, his career-low round as a Hoosier.On Sunday the teams went back out onto the course at 8:15 a.m. with more than one round to play — but a lot more than one and a half rounds of golf were on the Hoosiers’ minds. Junior Chase Wright won this tournament last year by seven shots and stood three shots back going into the second round.Erdy had finished tied for second two years in a row and was looking to win it this year with Wright still in contention.Wright and Erdy, though, were both unable to make strong enough runs in the afternoon heat.Ball State’s Tyler Merkel, who entered Sunday’s final round tied for 15th, was one of only six players in the field to break par in the final round.He edged out Erdy and Cleveland State’s Kent Monas, who both tied for second, by a single stroke, to take the individual medalist honors.Wright, who finished tied for fourth at 212 with a final round 73, said he felt he put too much stress on himself to defend his title.“I really just let it get to me a little too much,” Wright said. “Honestly, I really didn’t know where I stood through that whole last round, but it’s tough to play at home in front of your family and on a course you’re familiar with. It just adds even more pressure because you know how well you can play, and I just let it get to me.”IU coach Mike Mayer, who handed out the final awards after all the scores were posted, said he was a little disappointed that he couldn’t give the medalist trophy to one of his 10 participating players, but as the scores have shown the past three years, his team is tough to beat on a course it practices on weekly.“Every tournament is tough to win, and I really felt like we played two solid rounds of golf,” Mayer said. “I was really looking for us to have guys in both first and second, but in the end, we’re just a really hard team to beat on this golf course, no matter who we’re playing.”
(04/08/11 2:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After the team’s seventh-place finish at the Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas, its worst tournament finish since mid-September, the IU men’s golf team will prepare to host its only tournament of the year, the adidas Hoosier Invitational, at the IU Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday against a 15-team field.At the Border Olympics, the team finished 24 strokes behind tournament winner Arkansas with a 54-hole team total of 856. Junior Chase Wright was the lone IU player to finish in the top 20, finishing tied for eighth with 210 (74-67-69). After the seventh-place finish, the team dropped six places in the Golfweek-Sagarin rankings, from 28th to 34th, according to the April 3 rankings.This weekend, Wright and the rest of the team will attempt to defend their respective titles from last year’s Hoosier Invitational. Last year, the team won by an impressive 36 strokes in the 54-hole event for the second-straight year. Wright earned his first medal after shooting a 204 and edging out his teammate, junior David Erdy, by seven strokes.The team will begin defending its title Saturday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start and will play two rounds of the 54-hole tournament. The third round will begin Sunday with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.“We didn’t play our best golf at Laredo, but we also beat several teams in a really strong field,” coach Mike Mayer said. “But here in the adidas Hoosier Invitational, we expect to win. We’re the two-time defending champions, and if we play our best golf, we will win this tournament.”
(04/06/11 3:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Though they left the course midway through their first round Monday after rain delays halted play and shortened the 54-hole tournament and then finished the round Tuesday, struggles from the day before seemed to linger on for the IU women’s golf team members.They left the Indiana Invitational, a tournament they won just a year earlier, on Monday one shot behind their B-team. After first-round play was finished Tuesday, the team sat in 10th out of a 15-team field, 21 shots behind eventual tournament winner, Louisville.And though Louisville turned the tournament into a race for second, finishing Tuesday as 22-shot winners with a 36-hole team score of 593, IU was able to crawl its way back into the pack, finishing fourth, and just seven shots back from second-place Eastern Michigan.Sophomore Kate Coons led the charge for IU. After shooting 83 in the wet first round, Coons battled back and fired a one-over par 73 in the second round. Coons finished tied for 19th with a two-round total of 156.IU’s No. 1 player, freshman Lindsay Gahm, finished first overall for the team in the tournament, following her first-round 76 with a 77 late Tuesday to finish tied for eighth with 153.Sophomore Jackie Yanch finished tied with Coons for 19th after carding two 78s for the tournament. Junior Kristtini Cain followed, just one stroke back, after shooting a second-round 75. The IU B-team, which coach Clint Wallman chose to play in order to help him decide on a post-season roster, finished tied for ninth. Senior Cecilia Orevik finished first for the second squad in a tie for 14th with 155, just two shots back of the first team’s Gahm.After the team’s lone home tournament of the year, Wallman and his squad will begin to prepare for their final regular season tournament of the year, the Lady Buckeye Invitational sponsored by Ohio State on April 16-17.
(04/05/11 2:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On a day where teams were supposed to complete two rounds of golf in the two-day, 54-hole Indiana Invitational at Otter Creek Golf Course, high winds, heavy amounts of rain and thunder and lightning forced the IU women’s golf team and 14 other squads off the course for most of the day.Monday, shortly after the players began their first round with the 9 a.m. shotgun start, play was suspended at 10:45 a.m. due to inclement weather. Play didn’t resume until 3:45 p.m. but was then called off once again at 4:30 p.m.After only a few holes, both IU teams stand in the top-four for the tournament. The second roster IU coach Clint Wallman put into the field for the Invitational stands tied for first with Wisconsin at three over par.Both freshman Sophie Hayashi and sophomore Pamela Burneski lead the squad at even par, tied for second in the field.Wallman’s first five girls sit tied for third at four over par as a team after completing just 26 holes total. Sophomore Kate Coons currently leads the team at even par after just four holes. Freshman Lindsay Gahm and junior Kristtini Cain sit at one over par. Sophomore Jackie Yanch ended the day at two over par after eight holes finished, and senior Lauren Giesecke finished the day five-over after seven holes.No players finished more than eight of the expected 36 holes during the day, and therefore, the tournament was reformatted to only 36 holes. The players’ remaining first round and their second round will begin with a shotgun start Tuesday at 9 a.m.