Team travels to NCAA tourney

Senior forward Matt Fundenberger and his teammates went to practice half an hour early Tuesday and Wednesday so they could work on the minor technicalities of soccer.\nThey practiced corner kicks, crosses and often just kicked the ball into the goal -- everything that's given the men's soccer team problems in its three-game slide.\nCoach Jerry Yeagley had the same mission during practice this week. At one point Tuesday he shouted at his Hoosiers to work on a corner kick three times in a row. Before the end of that practice, he yelled at the entire team to leave the field because things weren't going how he wanted them to.\nThe Hoosiers (13-6) squeaked into the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid to face eighth-seeded San Jose State at 5 p.m. in Saturday's first round in Santa Clara, Calif. The Spartans (20-0-1) are the only undefeated team in the nation. IU must face the Spartans at Santa Clara after the Hoosiers defeated Santa Clara to win last year's national championship. \n"I don't think we're going in just happy to be in the tournament," Yeagley said. "No Indiana team has ever said, 'Hey, we're just glad to be in the tournament.' This year we knew that we didn't get the job done even though we played well, and a lot of players were getting pretty hard on themselves. And now we have a second chance, and our goal is to not just say, 'Hey, we made the tournament, we kept our streak alive.' We're taking this one game at a time."\nThey're also playing a first-round NCAA game on the road for the first time since 1992. And the Hoosiers haven't lost a first-round game in the tournament since 1995.\nYeagley and his players watched the Spartans at the Cal-Berkeley Classic Nov. 4-5, when the Hoosiers lost to Stanford. Cal. San Jose State has played a fairly weak schedule, with its highlight game a 1-1 tie with third-seeded Stanford Cardinal Sept. 26. The Stanford Cardinal was the only top-25 team the Spartans faced in the regular season.\nThe Spartans have scored 55 goals in 21 games this season, and Yeagley said they are a skillful teamand IU will have to use its best defense against them. The Hoosiers have nine shutouts in 19 games this season.\n"It's not going to be an easy game," sophomore defender John Swann said. "They're undefeated, they have all the confidence. But we have confidence in ourselves, too. We would much rather be playing here at home, but whatever it takes, we'll do it."\nThe only meeting between the Hoosiers and the Spartans was in 1978, with IU winning 1-0. The last time San Jose State made the NCAA tournament was in 1998, when it lost to eventual runner-up Stanford 3-2 in the first round.\nDespite their three-game losing streak, the Hoosiers played some of their best soccer in those games, Yeagley said. They competed evenly with Stanford for a 1-0 overtime loss, had an intense second half with two goals called-off in a 2-1 loss against Cal and dominated Big Ten tournament champion Ohio State in 1-0 second round loss.\nYeagley said he expects IU's leading scorers-- Fundenberger, junior midfielder Ryan Mack and sophomore midfielder Pat Noonan -- to heal the scoring wounds in the postseason. Noonan last scored in the Cal game -- one of IU's two goals in four games.\n"This team isn't as strong as last year's, and at the end of the season, we seem to be getting worse," Fundenberger said. "We've lost that way to win. We seem to have forgotten it. Playing on the road is going to make it more difficult, but right now we're just going to have to come out and do all the little things right and hopefully that'll help us"