Hoosiers named Hermann Trophy finalists

With a few lunges, leaps and blocks, senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig guarded his goal with great ease for the "A" squad in a men's soccer scrimmage yesterday afternoon, a day after he and junior midfielder Ryan Mack were named two of 15 Hermann Trophy finalists for the 2000 season. \nIn collegiate soccer, the Hermann Trophy is the equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy and is one of two annual awards given to top soccer players in the country.\nCoaches voted on the Hermann finalists, and along with media members, will vote on the winners of the award. The winners will be announced during the men's NCAA tournament in Charlotte, N.C. Collegesoccer.com also selected Hannig as a preseason national player of the year candidate and a member of the preseason All-American first team. Mack was also named to the first team, and senior forward Matt Fundenberger was selected as one of 15 honorable mention All-Americans.\n"Being named as a finalist is a great honor," Hannig said. "It's certainly nothing I expected coming into this season. It's a nice individual honor, but, as I'm sure Ryan's going to say, it's what the team accomplishes this season that's going to determine the success of the season."\nHannig must adjust to the absence of former IU sweeper Nick Garcia, who skipped his senior year to play professional soccer and was selected second overall in the Major League Soccer draft by the Kansas City Wizards in February. Garcia was named the Most Outstanding Defender of last year's NCAA tournament, and is making a case for being named the Major League Soccer rookie of the year.\n"T.J. has been the nation's most outstanding goalie in terms of success and statistics and so on," men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley said. "This year he's going to have to earn his medal with the young defense. He's had a lot of the work done for him with the Nick Garcia's and the great teams that we've had the last three years. He's going to have to hold us in some games this year. He's going to have to validate his reputation this year."\nYeagley said Hannig will be the starting goalkeeper this season with junior Colin Rogers as the backup. Last season, Hannig started 16 games while then-freshman Doug Warren started other games for the Hoosiers. Warren has since transferred to Clemson and may start for the Tigers. Warren was unhappy with the little playing time he received last season and was not willing to go through the same situation this season, Yeagley said. If Warren had stayed at IU, he would have likely been redshirted so he would have three years of eligibility after this season, Yeagley said.\nHannig earned a 14-2 record while allowing nine goals in 17 games. He made 40 saves with a 0.52 goals-allowed-average, which was fourth best in the nation.\n"Things are definitely going to be a lot different," Hannig said. "Nicky was a big stabilizer back there. I think (junior transfer) Josh (Rife) stepping in and being a sweeper, it's going to be a different experience for him. He's a new player back there. He hasn't really played that position. I think we'll be alright in the back."\nMack was named to the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team and started all 24 games last season. As a freshman starter for the team two seasons ago, he is a role model.\n"He's had a terrific underclass year," Yeagley said. "Now he's an upperclassman. Now he's a junior. He's been certainly an important factor for our last two championships. He's one of our most dominate players in terms of range and energy. His engine is just … it's a big engine. He can go and go and go. He's our Eveready Bunny, and he's got a passion for the game and he plays with a smile on his face."\nMack's energy was apparent yesterday as he often made long runs for the ball and showed emotion as he howled when he knocked the ball out-of-bounds after trying to push it upfield during the scrimmage.\n"I think since I'm one of the older guys I got to set an example for the younger guys because there's a bunch of freshmen coming in," Mack said. "They're great players; they just need to see on the leadership of older players, how we play and how we act toward different situations."\nThe most recent Hermann winner from IU was Brian Maisonneuve in 1994. Last season in the Hermann Trophy voting, Garcia finished second to Duke's Ali Curtis, a senior forward, while IU's Aleksey Korol finished fourth. Korol currently plays for the Dallas Burn of Major League Soccer. Curtis was also named a finalist this season.\nThe only other Big Ten soccer player included among the Hermann finalists is senior midfielder Ricardo Villar of Penn State. Connecticut, Southern Methodist and Virginia also had two players each selected as finalists.\n"We've had team players nominated, but it's where we are at the end of the year (that matters)," Yeagley said. "We had a lot of finalists last year, and certainly our team lived up to it, and they did too. We lost three All-Americans; I'm not sure if we have any this year. We'll have to wait and see"