One last home game

Seeking their ninth-straight victory, the second longest current win streak in the country, the Hoosiers will conclude the regular season Saturday night against Penn State for IU coach Jerry Yeagley's final regular season game. \nIU (10-3-4, 4-0-1 Big Ten) needs a victory Saturday to ensure the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday in Bloomington. A loss would hand the top seed to Michigan, who currently is two points ahead of the Hoosiers but with one conference loss -- that coming to IU 2-1 on Oct. 5 in Ann Arbor, Mich. \n"If we win this game, we are the regular season champs," Yeagley said. "I don't think there is any need to motivate the boys. I think they are ready. Meanwhile, Penn State over the years has been the toughest team in the Big Ten for us over a long period of time. They will be fired up."\nSaturday night's tilt is the makeup game from the Sept. 26 match, which was called due to lightning with the Hoosiers leading Penn State 2-0 just three and a half minutes shy of an official game. \n"We need to forget about the fact we had a two goal lead with control of the match," Yeagley said. "We can't go out there thinking we were up 2-0, take our foot off the pedal and expect that they will give us two again. It's a dangerous game."\nThe Hoosiers seek to extend their 21-game home unbeaten streak and dominating 44 game Big Ten unbeaten streak.\nWith a win Saturday, Yeagley will retire having not lost a Big Ten regular season game since a 2-0 defeat to Wisconsin in 1995. \nNot only will a win Saturday night claim the No. 1 seed, but it will also give them a bye Thursday and not force IU to play three matches -- a difficult task this late in the season. \n"This is a huge game for us because we want the No. 1 seed," junior forward Ned Grabavoy said. "We want to come out and play Friday at 5. We don't want to play Thursday and then have to play three games this weekend. We want to come out hard at these guys like we did the last game, so I look for the team to come out real hard."\nEven though Saturday's match is the second time these teams will have played one another this season, the Hoosiers do not plan on altering their scheme but instead just continue to play the type of soccer they have been playing during the win streak. \n"We're not changing anything up really," sophomore midfielder Pat Yates said. "Now we are just finding more ways to win where in the beginning of the season we were finding ways to lose. We are definitely playing a lot better as a team."\nNot playing so well are the Nittany Lions, who enter the match with a 7-9 overall mark and 1-4 in the conference. Penn State is 0-5 on the road having just dropped a 2-0 match to Villanova. \n"Their record does not flatter themselves," Yeagley said. "They feel they are better than their record."\nAfter a Sept. 18 defeat to Notre Dame, IU's record was 2-3-4, and it seemed with the team's youth, Yeagley would suffer his first losing season in 31 years. \n"As I said in the beginning of season, we would be a lot different at the end and lot of it has to do with the maturation of our freshman," Yeagley said. "I like the way the team is playing. We have a bit of a swagger, not a cockiness, but taking the field expecting to win." \n-- Contact staff writer Daniel Cohen at djcohen@indiana.edu.