Conference season finishes at Purdue

Women's soccer coach Joe Kelley is starting to do the things he said he hoped to do with his lineup.\nThe wealth of talent he possessed at the beginning of the season disappeared during the bulk of conference play as injuries kept Kelley's plans purely on paper.\nBut this weekend Kelley said those original plans will finally take shape on the field when IU travels for its final Big Ten game with Purdue, 3 p.m. today in West Lafayette.\n"We're able to do more things now than we could during the middle of the season as far as tactical alignments, and who we're going to play," Kelley said. "(Sophomore forward Kristen) Sprunger looks a lot better. She's dangerous now. (Senior back) Kendal (Willis) is doing a good job up front, which is one of the ways we've made an adjustment so now she's able to play at full strength again. (Sophomore forward Kate) Kastl's getting back. \n"I think we're going to take a different shape against Purdue. One that we would have liked to have taken a couple weeks ago but just couldn't."\n Just looking at an updated roster shows what Kelley is talking about.\n The two starting backs in the season opener, Willis and junior Whitney Butler, are playing forward. The other starting back in the Xavier game, senior Jena Kluska, has since lost her starting job. The new starting backfield is totally different from the one fans saw on opening night.\nThe team's depth, which was hurt by injuries all season, is finally back to what Kelley said he had thought it would be.\nPurdue coach Robert Klatte agreed.\n"They are such a talented team," Klatte said. "We recruited a lot of the same players, so we know just how good they can be.\n"It's just unfortunate what has happened to them this year."\nWhile the Hoosiers are playing the rest of their season, the Boilermakers are in the middle of a struggle for position heading into the Big Ten tournament. A win could move Purdue into the sixth slot of the eight-team field, while a loss to IU puts the Hoosiers eighth, with a first-round match-up with nationally-ranked Penn State.\nPurdue, like the Hoosiers, features an attack filled with underclassmen, as the the 3-year-old program has one senior on its roster.\nThe top two scorers for the Boilermakers are freshmen forwards Jennie Moppert and Courtney Coppedge. Moppert, who chose Purdue over IU and other schools, leads the team with 14 points.\n"(Moppert's) very opportunistic," Kelley said. "She's somebody we definitely have to watch."\nKelley also said Coppedge is a potential threat and someone IU backs will have to mark cautiously.\nIU has defeated the Boilermakers in the two previous meetings, 8-1 and 1-0, respectively. With roles reversed and Purdue ahead of the Hoosiers in the conference, Klatte sees an opportunity to get over the hump and beat IU.\nKlatte and Kelley agreed the game will also help in winning the recruiting battle off the field. Behind Notre Dame (ranked No. 1 nationally), Purdue and IU are fighting for the second spot in the state.\n"There will be a lot of potential recruits at the game," Klatte said. "It's obviously important for that reason."\nTake away recruiting, Purdue's post season chances and all the backdrops and frills. There's still IU-Purdue. There's still the classic rivalry between the state's two biggest schools -- right?\nOne Purdue player isn't too sure. With a total of five seniors and just 11 Indiana players on the combined rosters, Purdue sophomore back Elise Berry doesn't expect the rivalry to get too intense.\n"We have a pretty young team, so a lot of them don't understand IU-Purdue"