Hoosiers hope to earn first victory

The IU men's soccer team continues its tough season-opening schedule this weekend as they travel to Jamaica, New York, for the St. John's Classic. IU will go head-to-head with William & Mary and No. 15 St. John's Friday and Saturday as the Hoosiers are in search of their first victory of the season.\nThe match against St. John's will be the Hoosiers third game against a nationally ranked opponent. Senior back John Swann said IU schedules tough opposition early in the year in hopes of improving as the season progresses.\n"We don't schedule weak teams; we like to schedule hard teams so they exploit our weaknesses early," Swann said. "Then we can go back in practice and work on improving those weaknesses."\nIU is coming off a pair of ties against No. 5 Clemson and No. 20 Rutgers in the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. The season-opening ties marked the fourth time in Hoosier history that IU recorded back-to-back ties. The last time IU played consecutive ties was in 1992.\nThe Hoosiers' high-powered offense sputtered in the Classic, managing just one goal in 220 minutes of play. Despite scoring a lone goal, IU dominated ball control and shots as they doubled the shot output of both Rutgers and Clemson.\nAll-American senior forward Pat Noonan said he knows the Hoosiers will have to score more goals this weekend.\n"We created a lot of good opportunities (last weekend), and the goals will come," Noonan said. "We can create some good scoring chances, but we will just have to get a few more goals. The defense is always the backbone of our team, and they have proved that thus far."\nThe Hoosiers missed the presence of sophomore forward Mike Ambersley in the Clemson game after he reaggravated a back injury in the Rutgers match. Ambersley will also be sidelined for this weekend's matches.\nIn their 30 year history, the No. 4-ranked Hoosiers have never faced William & Mary, and until last year IU had not met St. John's, either. The Hoosiers and the Red Storm met twice last year with St. John's winning at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. IU got revenge with a 2-1 win in the College Cup semifinal.\nWilliam & Mary enters the contest with an 0-1 record; they lost their home opener to Appalachian State. The Tribe is led by All-American candidate, senior forward Carlos Garcia, who led William & Mary with 38 points on 15 goals and eight assists last year. Junior midfielder Phillip Hucles chipped in with 12 goals and six assists for 30 points as the Tribe went 11-9-1 in 2001.\nThe Red Storm entered the season ranked No. 3 in preseason polls, but after dropping its opener 2-1 to Boston College, St. John's plummeted in the rankings. Now 0-1, St. John's is in search of its first win and will look to avenge their season ending loss to the Hoosiers last season. St. John's is led by All-American candidate junior midfielder Chris Wingert, who anchors a group of 18 returning letterwinners and eight starters from last year's team, who reached the Final Four.\nHoosier coach Jerry Yeagley said he believes this Hoosier road trip will be instrumental for the Hoosiers as the season proceeds.\n"We schedule tough road games on the road as part of the seasoning process, and we try not to be intimidated," Yeagley said. "Many times we set attendance records at other peoples places, when Indiana comes to town it is a big deal. You can generate energy from that, and we try to do that. We try to take pride in going out on the field and holding our head high and say we are Indiana and we are going to come here and win."\nSt. John's Classic\nOpponents: \n- William & Mary, \n7 p.m. Friday\n- St. John's,\n9 p.m. Saturday\nWhere: \nJamaica, NY