Poll ranks team No. 1

Internetsoccer.com picked the men's soccer team as No. 1 in its national poll Monday. The Hoosiers had been ranked fifth in last week's poll, before unranked Syracuse upset top-ranked Connecticut 1-0 Saturday.\nIU (11-3, 5-0 in Big Ten play) defeated unranked Wisconsin 3-1 Friday and Northwestern 4-1 Sunday to claim the regular-season Big Ten title. The defending national champion Hoosiers hadn't been ranked No. 1 since the preseason and fell from the spot after losing the first two games of the season. At that point, IU was unranked.\n"I don't think we can look at being No. 1," sophomore midfielder Pat Noonan said after Sunday's win. "I think we've done fine not worrying about the seed we're at. We've beaten good teams, and we have to look past the seed. The No. 1 team just got knocked off by a team that wasn't as good as them. So if we click off, we're going to get beat. We can't worry about anything else."\nThe NSCAA coaches' poll ranks IU second behind San Jose State (11-0-1). The major national poll had IU ranked No. 2 behind Connecticut last week while Soccer America placed the Hoosiers eighth in the nation. Soccer America now ranks IU fifth.\nThe Hoosiers face Kentucky at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Lexington, Ky.\nMack snags Big Ten honors\nThis week, junior midfielder Ryan Mack was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time this season. He shares the honor with senior forward Steve Williford of Michigan State.\nIn IU's two conference wins this weekend, Mack tallied five points. He scored a goal against Wisconsin and had three assists on the weekend. He leads the Hoosiers with nine assists and is third on the team with five goals.\nTwo former Hoosiers win MLS Cup with Kansas City\nBefore the kickoff of Sunday's match, the men's soccer team watched three former Hoosiers compete in their first Major League Soccer championship game on television. Nick Garcia (1997-99) and Chris Klein (1994-97) celebrated the title with their Kansas City teammates in Washington, D.C., as the Wizards topped Dema Kovalenko (1996-98) and the Chicago Fire.\nKlein, an outside midfielder, assisted on the winning goal, scored by Miklos Molnar 11 minutes into the game. The Wizards upended the league's best offensive team, the Fire, 1-0 in front of 39,159 fans.\nIU coach Jerry Yeagley and his team watched the first half before defeating Northwestern 4-1 in Bill Armstrong Stadium.\n"I'm just proud to have four Hoosiers in uniform in the championship game," Yeagley said. "And they did have an effect. IU did have a big effect on that match. IU products."\nWhile former Hoosier Yuri Lavrinenko (1996-99) didn't see playing time for Chicago, Kovalenko had a golden scoring opportunity in the 83rd minute, but he was stopped by Wizards' goalkeeper Tony Meola, the MLS Cup's Most Valuable Player.\nKovalenko also had two close-range shots in the first half.\n"Dema should have scored a couple goals," said senior forward Matt Fundenberger, who played with Kovalenko for two years. "I rooted for him. He normally puts those away. It just shows how good our program is, as far as the quality players out there and able to play in MLS."\nTo set up the winning goal, Klein stole the ball from Chicago midfielder Diego Gutierrez near the midfield and raced down the right sideline toward the goal. Klein then sent a cross toward Molnar into the box. Fire midfielder Jesse Marsch failed to clear the ball, allowing Molnar to send the ball past Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton.\nThe assist was Klein's second in the postseason. In both regular and post-season, the Wizards went 19-2-1 when they scored first. Kansas City is the third team to win the MLS title since the league's first year, 1996. Chicago outshot Kansas City 22-6. \n"I was rooting for both teams," said Yeagley, who didn't know the final score until it was announced in the first half of the IU-Northwestern match. "It was great to see Chris Klein make the big play to win the game. I thought Nicky was doing a great job defensively. All three of our guys were playing well. Dema had a chance to tie it, and Meola came up with a great save in the first half"