Men's soccer ready for Big Ten Tournament rematch against Penn State

A Big Ten regular season title was just the first thing on the to-do list for IU men’s soccer.

Now that is scratched off the list, IU moves on to its next task.

A Big Ten Tournament title — a title IU hasn’t won since 2006, a title that no member of the team has in his IU Athletics player biography — is the end goal for the Hoosiers during this weekend’s trip to State College, Pa..

“Coming off the Big Ten regular season with a title, we’re just wanting to add another one,” freshman midfielder Harrison Petts said. “We’ll see if we can pull the double.”

It would not only mean a double title but also a double victory against Penn State in 2010.

Earlier this season, the Hoosiers beat the Nittany Lions in a 3-2 comeback victory.

“It’s putting together a full 90 minutes,” junior forward Alec Purdie said. “We can’t rely on scoring three goals in a half-an-hour span. You have to come out and put those 90 minutes together, and you can beat anyone.”

However, Penn State had a comeback victory, compiling three second-half goals to beat Northwestern 3-1 on Thursday.

Junior forward Will Bruin scored one goal in that game. Bruin has 15 total goals on the season, but he and the rest of the Hoosier squad were stifled in their final game of the season Sunday with a 1-0 loss to conference rival Ohio State.

“We’re certainly not going to dwell on it,” Purdie said of the loss to the Buckeyes. “It was a slow game, but we showed what we can do. We’ll build from that.”

If the Hoosiers do beat the Nittany Lions in the second round — they were given a bye since they are the No. 1 seed — IU will either play No. 3 seed Michigan or No. 7 seed Wisconsin. Wisconsin already is causing a stir in the tournament, uprooting No. 2 seed Ohio State on Thursday.

“We know on any given day we can play with anybody in the country,” Petts said. “We just have to know that we can come out and play our game.”

With a fresh slate for the postseason, the team looks to add another title to its resume.

However, there’s still one more title left on the list, but that one has a little more time before it can get marked off.

“Winning titles is important,” Purdie said. “That’s what we come here for.”