Hoosiers face toughest test

The IU women's soccer team has a lot riding on its shoulders this weekend. All season long they've been committed to pursuing a spot in the Big Ten tournament. As the conference season passes its midway point this weekend with games against No. 9 Michigan and Michigan State, the Hoosiers are facing one of their toughest tests of the year.\nOn the one hand, IU (6-3-2, 2-1-2) has the opportunity to jump into second place in the Big Ten by earning six points with two wins. On the other, they could sacrifice their last two conference home games and enter a four game road trip, including a contest at No. 20 Purdue, on a down note with two more losses. \nThe Hoosiers are ardently in favor of the former and will attempt to knock off two of the Big Ten's best teams by executing their ever-developing brand of soccer. \n"This weekend is really important for us. The games have such an impact as far as the Big Ten tournament goes," junior tri-captain midfielder Emily Hotz said. \nIt's also Parents' Weekend for IU and the team is excited to have a lot of friends and family coming to Bill Armstrong Stadium for the games. \n"We can't wait for this weekend, we've got doubleheaders, our parents are coming in, we're going to have a lot of fans," freshman forward Robin Barker said. "We want our fans to see how far we've come. It's just going to be an awesome weekend."\nThe Spartans (9-3-0, 4-2-0) travel to Bloomington Friday for a 5 p.m. start that will kick off a double header with the men's team who face Wisconsin. To defeat Michigan State, coach Mick Lyon said IU will have to pressure the ball and score goals when they have the opportunity. MSU's junior goal keeper Stacy Heller will be a tough egg to crack. In seven games this season, she has allowed just one goal, boasting a goals-against average of 0.15 and a .972 save percentage. \nSunday afternoon, the Hoosiers will go head to head against Michigan (10-2-0, 5-1-0) after the men battle Northwestern at 2 p.m. Michigan has been the strongest team in the Big Ten this season, evident most notably in their 4-0 thrashing of reigning Big Ten Champion Penn State Oct. 4. But, as Lyon pointed out, a week prior, the Wolverines were dominated by Minnesota, a team that IU dealt with handily in a 1-0 victory.\n"It's still a mystery. Anybody can beat anybody and that's the approach we'll take," Lyon said.\nThe Michigan attack has many highly touted and dangerous weapons. Four players have been named Big Ten Players of the Week this season, with three getting the nod in the past two weeks. Hotz said that marking up against other big time athletes provides an added incentive to get after the opposition with physical play.\n"It's always exciting to go up against players who are great players. It makes it more competitive," Hotz said. "You have to be physical or else you'll get knocked off the ball."\nTo compensate for Michigan's abundance of scoring options, Lyon said he will continue to make tactical adjustments during the weekend. The coaches experimented with their strategy by putting players in different positions to get a fresh look when trying to comeback against Northwestern. He said there are about five players who can only partially train during practices because of injury so that has limited his ability to implement changes during practice. Most of the fine-tuning will come during games when Lyon has all of his players with which to work. \nThis weekend will have significant ramifications for the Hoosiers, no matter what the out come. \n"We're playing a couple of teams that are ahead of us and we've got a couple of teams down the road that are behind us, but we've got to make sure that we stay in that top group. There's no doubt about it," Lyon said. "We're in a position where we're playing OK, but we just need to play better and better as we move along. We've got to finish chances."\nFor Barker, the question of getting into the Big Ten Tournament is simple.\n"We deserve to be there," Barker said, "and we can beat any team when we show up and we play hard"