Hoosiers selected to men's soccer NCAA Tournament

Sitting in Yogi’s Grill & Bar, staring at a large flat-screen TV, the IU men’s soccer team members awaited their fate as the NCAA announced the seeding for the 2011 NCAA Tournament at 4:30 p.m. Monday.

After finishing the regular season ranked No. 19 according to their RPI, yet in the top 10 in several college soccer polls across the country, it was unclear to IU where it would fall in this season’s tournament.

Soon after the broadcast aired, the Hoosiers realized their quest for the eighth star would begin a little later than they might have thought.

Indiana grabbed the No. 16 seed for the tournament, awarding them a first-round bye into the tournament of 48.

Unseeded Liberty and Old Dominion will face off Thursday to determine the Hoosiers’ second-round foe.

Freshman Eriq Zavaleta, who got his first taste of postseason college soccer during the Big Ten tournament last week, said he believes the Hoosiers will reap some benefits from getting extra rest with their first-round bye.

“We’ve had a really tough season with a lot of midweek games, so it’s good to be able to get some rest,” Zavaleta said. “I know people talk about how having to play in the first-round game sets you up for making it far in the tournament, but I think playing Old Dominion or Liberty with a couple more days of rest is a good thing.”

Without knowing which team the Hoosiers will be playing until Thursday, it might seem that IU’s opponent would have the upper hand in preparing for the second-round game.
Senior Chris Estridge, though, knows the Hoosier coaching staff will more than prepare him and his teammates for Sunday’s game.

“Our coaches do a good job of breaking down video, and they’ll give us a lot of clips and highlight a lot of points,” Estridge said. “They will most likely have video from games even before this matchup on Thursday because they’ll pick up on both of their
tendencies.”

After IU’s tough loss in penalty kicks in the Big Ten tournament semifinals this past Friday, Estridge said it might be nice to have a few more days to get that game out of the Hoosiers’ heads.

“We definitely took a lot from that game because we did a lot of good things,” Estridge said. “We had a few mistakes here and there, but we did a lot of good things, and we’re going to learn from that and look forward to the next game. It’s a tough road.”

If Indiana were to win Sunday, the team would face No. 1-seeded North Carolina, which won the ACC tournament this past weekend.

Despite IU’s loss to eventual tournament champion Akron in the third round of this past year’s tournament, Zavaleta said he believes his team has what it takes to possibly pull an upset and make a run in this year’s tournament. After all, it is
IU’s 25th-straight tournament appearance.

“We have high expectations,” Zavaleta said. “As an Indiana team, we always looks for a deep run in the tournament, and I think we’ve been good enough to win every game we’ve been in this year, and that includes games against Creighton and Louisville — good teams in the tournament. We’ve got to set the bar high.”

As for the road to the eighth star, Zavaleta said the Hoosiers won’t be easily diverted from the final destination.

“Realistically, we would like to be in Alabama for the College Cup,” he said. “I know we’ve got tough competition ahead of us, but we think we’re good enough to beat anybody.”