IU takes another trip to Indianapolis

The IU soccer team’s players know good time management. They practice, attend class and compete regularly, yet they also manage to give back to the community. \nThis weekend, the Hoosiers get to combine two tasks into one as they take on the Cincinnati Bearcats as a part of the Literacy Classic in Indianapolis.\nThe Literacy Classic is a tournament featuring men’s and women’s teams from IU, Butler, Ohio State, Illinois-Chicago, Cincinnati and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.\nProceeds from the event will be used to donate supplies to underprivileged children in the Warren Township elementary-school system. \nIU coach Mike Freitag believes community service is a positive activity for his team during the lull of the spring exhibition season. The team has regularly contributed to the Shalom Community Center soup kitchen, and it helped out at WonderLab last weekend.\n“The guys are really giving back to the community,” Freitag said. \nCincinnati is the only featured team the Hoosiers did not play during the previous season. However, this is not the first time IU has faced the Bearcats in spring exhibition play. \nSophomore midfielder John Mellencamp said last year was a “close match” between the two rivals and thinks the Bearcats are going to challenge the Hoosiers again this spring. \n“They’re going to come out. They’re going to be ready to play,” Mellencamp said. “It’s going to be a good game. But if we come out fired up I think we can get the job done, though.”\nComing out fired up shouldn’t be hard for the Hoosiers. \nLast weekend, they defeated in-state rival Notre Dame 2-0. Both goals were scored by sophomore forward Kevin Noschang, who said he saw increased confidence in the team after its strong performance last weekend.\n“As a team I think we played well,” Noschang said. “That definitely showed in training this week. We had a lot of confidence, and the guys are playing well so we’re hopefully going to take that into (this weekend’s) game.”\nFreitag also hopes his team carries the momentum from the win into this weekend, but he hopes the team doesn’t forget the steps it took to get that win.\n“I hope they remember what they did to get that success,” he said. “I don’t want them to get too caught up in the win and forget the strides they took to get there.”