IU upset in conference tournament

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The inability to finish games is something that plagued the IU men's basketball team last season and the IU football team this season. That inability trickled down to the No. 4 IU men's soccer team (14-4-1, 5-1 Big Ten) this season and finally caught up to the team in the Hoosiers' 2-1 loss Friday to Michigan State (11-6-4, 2-4-0 Big Ten) in the Big Ten tournament.\nThis was the first time since IU became a varsity program in 1973 that the Spartans defeated the Hoosiers. IU held a 31-0-1 all-time record against Michigan State before Friday's match.\nMSU coach Joe Baum, in his 28th year at the helm, said in past years his team has come closer to beating the Hoosiers but just couldn't get over the hump -- citing close match-ups in the last few years. But a tie with IU last season and a close loss in the NCAA tournament two years ago really gave his team confidence, Baum said.\n"It's a huge, huge win," Baum said. "I think we used to come into these games thinking, 'Can we beat these guys?' Then after those two games we said, 'Hey wait a minute, they're a great side, but if we really, really play our A game, we got a shot.'"\nComing into Friday's match, the Hoosiers were 0-3 this season when the opponent scores first, and the Spartans extended that mark to 0-4. MSU took the early lead in the 17th minute when junior midfielder Ryan McMahen scored on a restart from 25-yards out as he bent the ball over the IU wall and placed it in the upper left corner as IU senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly dove to his right. The Munster, Ind., native scored the exact same way when the Hoosiers defeated the Spartans 3-1, Sept. 26 in East Lansing, Mich.\nAfter the Spartan goal, IU controlled time of possession as the Hoosiers kept the ball in their offensive half of the field.\nIn the 28th minute, IU junior midfielder Pat Yates came into the match for junior midfielder Jordan Chirico, and Yates made an instant impact by scoring the equalizer four minutes later on an assist from junior forward Mike Ambersley. \n"Yates gave us a spark there. He scored a beautiful goal," said IU coach Mike Freitag. "I thought we showed the character of being down and coming right back and scoring. Once that happened, I thought we were in pretty good shape."\nWhen both teams came out for the second half, the Hoosiers continued to dominate possession, but McMahen came through again for the Spartans in the 70th minute as MSU senior forward Jordan Gruber found McMahen with a pass across the top of the box and McMahen fired the shot to the top left of the goal past a diving Nolly.\n"I think the luck was on our side today," McMahen said. "We've been playing hard all year, we've been very unlucky all year and I think luck was on our side ... It's a big time win for us."\nIU entered Friday's match on a five-game winning streak, defeating its opponents by a combined score of 11-1. Had IU won the Big Ten tournament, not only would the Hoosiers receive the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but many believe the NCAA would give IU a bye in the first-round and home field matches until the College Cup in Carson, Calif., Dec. 10-12. \nNow, IU looks for help today from the NCAA men's soccer tournament selection committee when the organization announces the NCAA's tournament bracket this afternoon.\nThe top-16 seeds receive a first-round bye and the selection show will announce these seeds along with the other teams making the tournament today, on "ESPNews," at 4 p.m.\nNolly said it might be good for IU to get a loss out of their system.\n"Now that we're going into the (NCAA) tournament we can't afford another loss," he said. "It's kind of good to get it out now."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.