Hoosiers advance to Elite Eight

While most of the IU student body feasted on food during the Thanksgiving break, the No. 2-seeded IU men's soccer team stayed in Bloomington and gobbled up Wolverines and Eagles. The Hoosiers defeated Michigan Tuesday, 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and Boston College Sunday, 1-0. \nIU sophomore midfielder Josh Tudela secured the third round victory against Boston College with the match's lone goal in the 41st minute.\nJunior midfielder Brian Plotkin served a corner into the box where Tudela jumped up to head the ball and the ball skimmed off the top of Tudela's head into the goal.\n"It was a good battle," said Boston College coach Ed Kelly. "It's just a tough goal to give up. It was (Tudela's) first goal of the season (and) he's the smallest kid on the field."\nSince IU owns the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Hoosiers have home-field advantage all the way until the College Cup in Carson, Calif. IU (16-4-1 overall) plays host to unranked Tulsa in the quarterfinals Sunday as the Hoosiers moved to 44-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament games at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nThe goal was Tudela's first of the season and second of his career. Plotkin's assist tied him for a personal season high of nine. Plotkin had nine in last year's national championship season.\n"I felt really relieved," Tudela said about scoring his first goal of the season. "I thought I was kind of unfortunate in the beginning (of the season), kind of getting unlucky, hitting posts and everything and I finally got it. I was extremely happy to get that goal."\nTudela's previous career goal came in last season's NCAA Tournament victory against Kentucky.\nBoston College finished the match with 12 shots, four of which were on goal. IU senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly said the only scoring threats the Eagles posed came off of set pieces.\n"They've got four or five guys that are over six foot, and we're not the tallest team coming through the midfield and our forwards," Nolly said. "Everyone was clicked in and we locked down on it and the only thing they got were some floater headers to me. But nothing too, too dangerous. We played really well defensively."\nBoston College advanced to the third round by way of defeating unranked Big East conference foe UConn, 1-0.\nIn the match against Michigan, it took 87 minutes before IU sophomore forward Kevin Robson scored the match's first and only goal. Robson gathered the ball in the upper-near side corner of the 18-yard box, pushed through the defense and put the ball near-side post in the lower corner.\nThe move by Robson caught Michigan goalkeeper Peter Dzubay leaning to his right -- which forced Dzubay's late dive to his left in a failed attempt to save Robson's shot.\nRobson's goal was his first of the season and second of his career.\nNine of the top-16 seeded teams in the NCAA Tournament lost in their second or third round match, including No. 1 seed Wake Forest losing to No. 16 seed Virginia Commonwealth University in the third round. In the eight third-round matches, four of the top seeded teams lost their matches, including No. 6 seed UCLA losing to No. 11 seed St. John's. \nIU defeated UCLA in the quarterfinals of last year's NCAA Tournament and defeated St. John's in the championship game of the College Cup.\nTulsa advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Michigan State 3-1 in the first round, then defeated No. 10 seed Penn State 4-3 on penalty kicks after the two teams played to a 1-1 in two overtimes, and went on to knock off No. 7 seed Southern Methodist University 2-1 in two overtimes.\nThe week between matches gives sophomore forward Jacob Peterson time to mend his ankle. IU coach Mike Freitag said Peterson is not 100 percent, but said trainer Joe Lueken will have Peterson there for the Tulsa match.\n"At this point in time we try to take each game with a level head, know what's at stake, and be at our best," Freitag said. "Whether we're the top seed or the low seed, it depends on what goes on in that 90 minutes is what's going to matter. It doesn't matter what kind of labels we have with us."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.