Reigning champs set sights

The uncertain future of where the NCAA men's soccer tournament selection committee would place the IU men's soccer team in the tournament was on the minds of the team members as they gathered to watch ESPNEWS' broadcast of the selection show Monday at The City Grille. The defending NCAA national champions made an early exit from the Big Ten tournament last Friday as Michigan State defeated the Hoosiers 2-1.\nESPNEWS announced the top eight seeds in the tournament, but the Hoosiers were the last of the top eight teams to hear their name called. The NCAA Selection Committee awarded IU the No. 2 seed, placing the Hoosiers at the bottom of the bracket.\n"We were hoping to get a top eight seed," said sophomore back Jed Zayner. "It was a tough exit from the Big Ten championships, but I guess our strength of schedule came out (and helped) us and just the standings last year, we did well this year against top-ranked teams."\nThis is the highest seed for the Hoosiers since 1999 when the NCAA seeded the team No. 2 that season as well. IU went on to win the national championship in 1999, one of the program's six national titles (others were in 1982, 1983, 1988, 1998 and 2003). Last season, the NCAA seeded IU No. 8 as IU defeated the University of Kentucky, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of California-Los Angeles, Santa Clara University and St. John's University en route to the national title.\nTen teams IU played during the regular season and Big Ten tournament made the NCAA tournament, and IU is a combined 6-4 against those teams. Michigan State is the only team IU faced twice, with IU winning the first outing.\nThe Hoosiers play host Tuesday, Nov. 23, against the winner of Michigan (10-7-4 overall) versus Akron (13-4-3). If IU wins its subsequent tournament games, the team has home-field advantage until the College Cup, Dec. 10-12 in Carson, Calif.\n"It's nice to be in Bloomington; we're excited," said IU Coach Mike Freitag. "We know there's a lot of good teams in this tournament and we are going to take it one game at a time, but it is nice to be home."\nBefore IU heard its name called, the team expressed many verbal surprises at the ranking of some teams, such as No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 9 University of California-Santa Barbara and No. 13 New Mexico -- all teams IU played at one point during the regular season. After the announcement of New Mexico's seeding, the network showed highlights of IU sophomore forward Jacob Peterson's goal in the national championship game versus St. John's as the network went to commercial. These highlights, including video of retired Hoosier coach Jerry Yeagley hoisting the national championship trophy, garnered the most cheers from the team.\nFormer Hoosier standout Ned Grabavoy and current junior back Drew Moor arrived in Columbus, Ohio, just hours before the final match of last year's NCAA tournament. The duo played for the United States U-20 national team in the United Arab Emirates during the first four rounds of last season's NCAA tournament.\n"It's definitely nice to be here," Moor said. "Last year, this time, I was happy with the seed, but it just wasn't the same feeling having to leave the team. But this year, it's a little bit different."\nForty-eight teams from Division I make the NCAA tournament, with 23 of those teams earning automatic bids to the tournament by way of winning their conference regular seasons or conference tournament titles. IU's berth to the tournament came from one of the 25 available at-large bids the NCAA grants to teams based on their play during the season.\nFor the first time in conference history, the Big Ten sends six teams to the NCAA tournament, with Wisconsin being the lone team not to make the tournament. Only IU, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin compete in Big Ten men's soccer.\n"The Big Ten's the best I've ever seen this year from top to bottom," Freitag said. "To get six of the seven teams into the tournament, that's a strong statement for the Big Ten."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve \nSlivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.