Men's soccer wins adidas/IU Credit Union Classic

For the third consecutive season, the IU men's soccer team captured the season-opening a didas/IU Credit Union Classic. The No. 1 Hoosiers emerged as champions from a field that included three of the top teams in the country -- No. 7 Southern Methodist University, No. 10 Wake Forest and No. 16 Notre Dame. IU won the classic by defeating SMU 4-0 Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the strength of senior leadership.\n"I was very proud of our seniors all weekend," IU head coach Mike Freitag said. "They have the leadership and the play also to show the younger players, to see how Indiana soccer plays and how we go about things." \nThe Hoosiers controlled their destiny as they entered their second game of the classic against SMU. Wake Forest defeated Notre Dame 1-0 in the morning game, giving every team but IU a loss during the classic. A win would clinch the title for the Hoosiers.\nIU wasted little time scoring against SMU, getting on the scoreboard 12 minutes into the contest. Streaking down the far sideline, senior midfielder Mike Ambersley placed a cross on the head of senior midfielder Brian Plotkin to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 lead. \n"Mikey and I have been combining well in the preseason," Plotkin said. "The ball was there, it was a great service."\nLess than a minute after his goal, Plotkin returned the favor by assisting on an Ambersley goal. As the SMU defense closed in on Plotkin, he turned on the ball and laid it off to Ambersley, who shot the ball past SMU goalkeeper Steve Sandbo to extend the lead to 2-0.\n"I thought the key to this game was that we moved the ball very quickly," said Ambersley. "Once we got that first goal, it was on from there."\nAlthough IU had only a 9-6 advantage on shots in the first half, the quality of shots for the Hoosiers was much higher. Twenty-one minutes into the half, junior midfielder John Michael Hayden finished another Ambersley cross to round out the scoring for the first half.\nThe Hoosiers came out a little slow in the early stages of the second half, but soon regained control of the game when junior midfielder Josh Tudela scored on a 12-yard shot after completing a spin move around a SMU defender. \nThe Hoosiers opened up the season by hosting Wake Forest in front of 4,272 fans. The game was close the entire time until a Plotkin goal broke the 0-0 deadlock with eight minutes remaining in the game. \n"We really didn't know what it was going to take (to score)," Plotkin said. "In the locker room, they kept telling us to keep plugging away, just keep going at the goal to find ways. We were just trying to get the ball to go in."\nPlotkin was awarded the offensive MVP of the classic. Sophomore defender Greg Stevning was named defensive MVP. Freshman forward Lee Nguyen, Plotkin, Tudela and Ambersley represented the Hoosiers on the All-Tournament team.