Soccer Showcase

FORT WAYNE -- Don't try telling IU junior goalkeeper Chris Munroe the men's soccer team's victory against the University of Maryland was just another exhibition. He knows better.\n"This felt like a real regular season, postseason-type game," Munroe said after the No. 12 Hoosiers' 1-0 victory against the No. 1 Terrapins. "We tied these guys last year. They're a great, great team with a lot of tradition."\nThe Hoosiers took down the Terps Friday in their second exhibition game of the 2006 season in front of 6,118 fans at the IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne Soccer Showcase. The Hoosiers also won their first exhibition game, defeating the University of Illinois-Chicago 1-0. \nIU coach Mike Freitag said it's "very important" to play a team of Maryland's caliber early on. \n"You want to play a quality team because we're going to be hitting quality teams right off the bat," Freitag said. "Some teams, sometimes, you can play a couple easy teams. So far we've played two really good teams."\nThe competitive opponents and the large crowd were also good for his younger players, Freitag said. IU lost six of last year's players to graduation or professional leagues. \n"Everyone counts us as underdogs, but to beat the No. 1 team, it sends a message to the nation," sophomore forward Brian Ackley said. "It says we can do it. We're new young guys, but we can hang with the rest of them."\nMaryland coach Sasho Cirovski said the preseason meeting was a "perfect barometer."\n"At the end of the day, it's just a measuring-stick game," he said. "It has no significance beyond that. ... I thought it was a great event, a great environment and a great opportunity to see where we stand. We certainly will dissect this game, learn from it, and we'll be better for it."\nLast week's preseason meeting was a rematch of a 3-3 regular season tie at Maryland last year and IU's defeat of the Terps at the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal en route to its seventh national championship in 2004.