Big Ten soccer tournament begins today

While the No. 4 IU men's soccer team does not begin its Big Ten Tournament title defense until 11:30 a.m. Friday, in Ann Arbor, Mich., the rest of the tournament gets underway this morning.\nBecause the Hoosiers (14-3-1, 5-1 Big Ten) tied Ohio State (10-5-2, 5-1 Big Ten) for the best record in the conference this season, the Big Ten looks to head-to-head meetings. IU defeated the Buckeyes 2-0 in Columbus in October, securing the No. 1 seed and the first round bye for the Hoosiers in the Big Ten Tournament.\n"I think we mainly need to focus on ourselves," said IU coach Mike Freitag. "I'm not one that worries too much about the opponent. I think we're a team that if we're playing our best, we can beat anybody. I just want us to be sharp and do everything we can because we cannot control the other team."\nIf the matches in the Big Ten tournament end in a tie after two golden goal periods, the matches will go to a shootout, in which each team chooses five players to try to score against the opposing team's goalkeeper. During the regular season, if the matches end in a tie after two golden goal periods, the match ends and is recorded as a tie.\n"Hopefully we aren't going to have to take it to (a shootout)," said IU senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly. "We need to start scoring, and this is the time."\nIU awaits the winner of this morning's first match at 9 a.m., which pits No. 4-seed Wisconsin (9-8, 2-3 Big Ten) versus No. 5-seed Michigan State (9-6-1, 2-4 Big Ten).\nThe Badgers and the Spartans met on Halloween, and Wisconsin came away with a 2-1 victory. Wisconsin senior forward Nick Van Sicklen scored both goals versus the Spartans, adding to his finish as the conference's top scorer with 31 points and 12 goals.\nMichigan State's two leading scorers on the season, senior forward Jordan Gruber and senior forward John Minagawa-Webster, helped the Spartans to the second most goals per game (2.06) this season in the Big Ten in 16 matches.\nThe second match at 11:45 a.m., features No. 3-seed Northwestern (11-4-2, 2-2-1 Big Ten) against No. 6-seed Penn State (9-3-7, 1-3-2 Big Ten). When these two teams met Oct. 9, the Wildcats led the Nittany Lions 2-0, until Penn State freshman Richard Costanzo scored to pull the match within one with 44 seconds remaining in regulation. Thirty seconds later, Nittany Lions senior forward Chad Severs scored and the match finished in a 2-2 tie.\nPrior to the start of the season, the Big Ten coaches picked Penn State to finish second in the conference to IU. Northwestern later defeated IU 1-0 on Oct. 17 on sophomore forward Brad North's goal in the seventh minute of the match.\nNorthwestern is this season's surprise team in the Big Ten, as the Wildcats finished last season 0-3-3 in the Big Ten with a 7-7-6 overall record.\n"This shows the strength of the conference," Freitag said. "The only other two teams from the Big Ten that were in the top 10 (of the polls) was Michigan and Penn State, at some point in time. Both of them are sixth and seventh in the conference. It's a tough conference."\nIn the third and final match today, the home team No. 7-seed Wolverines (9-6-4, 1-4-1 Big Ten) face No. 2-seed Ohio State (10-5-2, 5-1 Big Ten) in a rematch from five days ago, when the Buckeyes defeated Michigan 2-0 at the UM soccer field.\nThe Buckeyes feature Big Ten player of the year candidate in senior forward Justin Cook. Cook finished tied for second in the league in goals (11), and third in points (27). \nOhio State enters the tournament with a 9-2-1 record in its last 12 matches, which includes two wins over ranked teams. The Buckeyes are also riding a season-best three-match winning streak, and all of this comes after the team started the season 1-3-1.\n"This is our best streak of the season, and it has happened at the most important time of the season. You want to be playing your best soccer at the end of the season," said Ohio State coach John Bluem in a statement. \nMichigan's defense allowed 20 goals in 19 games this season. Wolverine junior goalkeeper Peter Dzubay only appeared in 12 matches this season but had four shutouts and 48 saves. Dzubay allowed 11 of Michigan's 20 goals this season.\nIU junior forward Brian Plotkin said every team is dangerous in the Big Ten.\n"The conference from top to bottom is as strong as it's ever been," Plotkin said. "Any team can beat any team on any day. We're just working everyday to prepare ourselves for this weekend."\nThe team that wins the tournament receives the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins Nov. 19.\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.