Hoosiers enter Big Tens with No. 3 seed

It's been 365 days since the IU men's soccer team lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten men's soccer tournament.\nThe Hoosiers said they want to win this weekend's Big Ten tournament with hopes of securing a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament. Any top-four seed guarantees a team home field advantage until the College Cup.\nIU, the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament, takes on the No. 6-seeded Wisconsin Badgers 11:45 a.m. in Evanston, Ill. The Hoosiers beat the Badgers Oct. 14 in Madison, 5-2.\n"Last year, Michigan State gave us a game," sophomore defender Jed Zayner said. "This year, we're ready for anything. We have six ties, and the Big Ten is pretty tough, and we know what to expect now."\nIn last season's Big Ten tournament, IU was the No. 1 seed and had a first round bye. The Hoosiers entered last year's match with the Spartans on a five-game win streak and have gone 16-1-6 since the loss. Those 16 wins include five straight victories en route to last year's national title. The lone loss earlier this season came to Penn State, who holds the No. 1 seed in this weekend's tournament.\nSince defeating No. 1 Akron Thursday, IU moved up to No. 2 in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll from No. 5 last week. Akron fell to No. 5, and Maryland currently is the nation's consensus No. 1 team.\nZayner said he does not think the Hoosiers "have" to win the Big Ten tournament to receive a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament.\n"If we do, it's a definite," Zayner said. "We're not going to not win it. That's our mentality. We're going in to win it, and we'll win an NCAA (title) from there."\nIU (11-1-6 overall, 2-1-3 Big Ten) must face a Badger team (8-10-0 overall, 2-4-0 Big Ten) without the services of senior tri-captain Brian Plotkin. In the match versus Akron, the midfielder received his fifth yellow card (along with scoring the winning goal) of the season, and the rules state a player must sit out one match when he reaches five yellows.\nPlotkin ranks No. 10 all-time for IU in assists with 33 and with one more will tie former Hoosier Ryan Mack. Plotkin is also second on the team this season in goals (9) and leads the team in points (25).\nThe last time the senior midfielder did not appear in a match was Sept. 6, 2002, Plotkin's freshman season. Senior Mike Ambersley moves over to Plotkin's center midfield position, while freshman Brad Ring gets his second start of the season at defensive midfield. Senior Jordan Chirico slides into Ambersley's spot wide to the right of the midfield.\n"I was hoping to play three (games) in front of my family and friends," Plotkin, a Lisle, Ill., native, said. "But hopefully I can play two in front of them."\nThe other time the cream and crimson held the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament was in 1995 when they advanced to the championship match with No. 1 seed Wisconsin. Officials cancelled the match because of snow and declared the teams co-champions that year.\nThe winner of Thursday's IU/Wisconsin match plays the winner of the No. 2 Ohio State/No. 7 Northwestern game in the second semifinal match 2:30 p.m. Friday. College Sports Television will broadcast Sunday's championship match live at 11:00 a.m.\nIn all 14 Big Ten tournaments, IU has either won the title or lost to the eventual champion.\n"I think we've got as good of depth as anybody," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "I think this makes this team even stronger ... I'm just feeling really good about things"