Hoosiers face No. 6 Louisville today

Sitting just north of 17th Street, surrounded by the stands of Bill Armstrong stadium, rests Jerry Yeagley Field.

Games averaged just under 1,500 people in attendance during the regular season, but the IU soccer team would like it if more of the 6,100 seats were filled during their first round game of the NCAA Tournament.

“It’d be great to have the fans that have been there all season coming out,” junior midfielder Andy Adlard said. “Whoever shows up, however many that is, will be great. Whoever is behind us, we’ll put on the best show we can for them.”

IU and No. 6 Louisville will take the pitch at 7 p.m. today. The game brings IU its 34th tournament appearance in its 36-year history as a program.

“We felt a little more pressure this year because of our record, and we weren’t sure if we were going to get in or not,” Adlard said. “It’s a relief to say we got in and, now, it’s just time for us to do our best and hopefully go on a winning string here and get to that national final."

IU owns the Division-I NCAA tournament winning percentage and most wins records in the with .745 and 74 respectively.

The Hoosiers will throw on their jerseys, lace up their cleats and bring their ‘seven-time national champions’ attitude to their game against the Louisville Cardinals.

At least, IU coach Mike Freitag said he hopes that is the case.

“The difference between last time is that ... we traveled on the day of the game, just didn’t seem like we were focused when we got off the bus and didn’t seem focus in the first half,” he said. “They scored I think the first two goals in the first fifteen minutes. That was disappointing. I think if we come to play and we’re focused, we’ll have a lot different game.”

But the last meeting between the teams ended in a 4-0 win by the Cardinals.

However, the Hoosiers are in a different state of mind, no longer in a scoring drought and are equipped with more experience. Almost a month has passed since the two teams last met.

“We’re pretty much going with what we’ve been doing the whole year and trying to be more consistent throughout the whole game and try not to have as many mental lapses,” senior midfielder Eric Alexander said.

The difference for this game will be that the Hoosiers take on the Cardinals at home. Louisville has never been able to beat IU in Bloomington. For Alexander, a win is crucial, or his days running across Jerry Yeagley Field will be done.

“Obviously, it’s in the back of your head,” Alexander said. “That can always kind of mess with your game, so we try not to think about it. If we do think about it, we try to use it as motivation so we don’t make it our last game.”

With a 26-4-1 NCAA Tournament opener record, the Hoosiers are not used to packing up early.

“This is just a one-game season right now so far, whatever happened in the past, the ups and the downs, we’re just putting it behind us and trying to be positive and move forward,” Alexander said.

As for his team that ended just above .500 in the regular season, Freitag said the tournament is a whole new season, in the mind and on paper.

“You gotta believe in yourself,” Freitag said. “We know we can do it. We’ve played the best competition out there that there is and we’ve held our own, even though in some of these we’ve faltered. We know what we can do.

“Everybody’s at 0-0 right now in the tournament. It’s anybody’s taking. It’s how you perform on the day and if you come out and perform tomorrow.”