Men's soccer takes conference lead on the road

It is back to Big Ten play Sunday and back to another chance for the IU men’s soccer team to get back to its recent winning ways.

The Hoosiers travel to Michigan State and will try to pull one game closer to a Big Ten regular season title in East Lansing, Mich. at 1 p.m.

Coming off Wednesday’s 1-1 tie at Kentucky, conference-leading IU (7-4-2, 2-0-1) attempts to fend off second-place and No. 16 Michigan State and earn some padding in the conference standings as both teams head into the final stretch of the season.

“It’s always a tough battle against them,” senior midfielder Rich Balchan said. “They have some pretty quality attacking players, and they’re organized defensively. They’ll get chances. We’ll get chances, so I guess it’s whoever’s more disciplined on the day will get the result.”

The chances have been there thus far as the Hoosiers recorded 213 shots in their first 13 games of the year.

Although IU has outshot its opponents by 72 shots at this point in the year, the issue of not finishing still remains.

“The case in the last couple games has just been not taking our chances when we get them,” senior midfielder Andy Adlard said. “Those are crucial, especially in the Big Ten. Michigan State, they’re a good team and it’s going to be a tough game, but if we can win that, puts us in good position to win the Big Ten, which is a goal we have for the season.”

Adlard has four goals in games played away from Bloomington, which is tied with junior forward Will Bruin for the team lead. Adlard’s most recent road goal came Wednesday in Lexington, Ky.

A conference road win would add to IU’s impressive road résumé, which is already highlighted by wins against then-No. 11 Creighton, then-No. 20 Penn State and then-No. 22 Drake.

“We’re definitely rising to the occasion,” Adlard said. “As long as we can win this game on the road, everything is set up perfectly.”

Balchan said the key to finishing out the season strongly is to treat each game the same. Although a win would be tremendous for conference standings, regional record and overall RPI, he said a conference road game with plenty of implications is just another game.

“We have five games left in the regular season, so this is the final stretch,” the four-year veteran said. “I wouldn’t say this game is any more important than the rest. We’re trying to stay atop the Big Ten standings. So we’re going to try to go in with energy and get a result, just like every other game.”