Hoosiers face rivals

IU will face Wildcats for the second game in a row, but this match up should prove to be much tougher. The Hoosiers are coming off of 5-1 and 1-0 wins against Wisconsin and the Northwestern Wildcats respectively this past weekend. \nIU (10-1-2) travels to Lexington to take on rival Kentucky (7-4-0) at 6:30 p.m. tonight. The two teams battled to a 1-1 tie in the preseason, and the Hoosiers look to come away with a victory to increase their winning streak to 10 games.\nThe Hoosiers have dominated the Wildcats traditionally, only losing one of the 15 meetings between the two teams. But, a much-improved Kentucky team has given IU fits recently. \nIU needed two overtimes to beat Kentucky last year, and without sophomore Danny O'Rourke at the hub of the team, the Hoosiers will have a tough challenge on their hands. O'Rourke sustained a broken bone in his face during warm-ups before the Northwestern game. \n"It's Kentucky-Indiana," coach Jerry Yeagley said. "We throw out the book. The big question for us is how we will adjust without Danny in the lineup because we count on him to do so much of our ball winning. He was the player that was on the ball more than any other player we had.\n"He plays like a player and a half, so other people will have to pick it up, and depending on how well we do that, will determine how we're going to fair," he said.\nBut, IU's players have continued to perform well in the face of adversity. Sophomore Ned Grabavoy and junior David Prall won the Big Ten Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week respectively for their performances against Wisconsin and Northwestern. Grabavoy tallied two goals in the Wisconsin game and assisted on the lone goal against Northwestern. Prall scored his first goal of the season and added an assist against Wisconsin, and was a pivotal part of an IU backfield that shutout Northwestern.\nPrall said Kentucky and IU have traditionally played evenly-matched games.\n"It's always a tight game and tough match-up," Prall said. "Their coach has a real rivalry with us, and has his team pumped up and ready to play. They're a better team this year technically as well as physically, so it should be a rough match for us, which we need."\nKentucky upset Maryland, who was ranked N0. 10 at the time, in the first week in the season, but upsetting a second top-10 team will be very difficult, Kentucky coach Ian Collins said. \nIU knows how hard it will be coming away with a victory at Kentucky where the rivalry is heated. Junior Vijay Dias played two years of high school in Louisville, and said he has experienced the harsh Kentucky crowds.\n"I've played in Lexington, and it's always really hard because they get a lot of fans out there," Dias said. "They're always fired up to play us because of the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry"