Hoosiers to begin Big Ten Tournament

With a season that started in a promising 9-2-1 fashion, the Hoosiers were looking up with a conference clean sheet.

On Oct. 10, a tie came against Louisville, and since then the Hoosiers have ended the season going 2-2-2 while not shutting out any of their Big Ten opponents.

Seniors Luis Soffner and Caleb Konstanski could not put a  finger on what exactly happened, but they believe they have it fixed going into the Big Ten Tournament
today.

“I think the team played well enough to get those wins, but it was more coming down to basic fundamentals,” Soffner said. “Those are the things that maybe we were doing right when we were getting shutouts. I don’t know if we were physically drained, but we definitely dropped off a bit.”

Konstanski said he believed a shift in offensive and defensive cohesion might have been at fault.

“I think we got away from defending as an entire unit,” Konstanski said. “Later in the season there were two distinct lines between attackers and defenders. We realized we are not going to win games that way.”

Soffner said although it was unfortunate dropping those late conference games, the adversity has helped the team regain its cohesion this week in practice.

“It has brought us closer together,” he said. “We all sat down and talked about what we needed to do to get it back. We were saying we need to get back to doing what we were doing before with the mindset of defending as a team, scoring as a team and ultimately winning as a team.”

Konstanski also spoke of the team as a whole regarding both the defensive and offensive mindsets in his defensive unit.

“Guys are genuinely upset about the goals we’ve given up,” he said. “But we’ve also been working on the offensive side of the ball just as much. We don’t get up in the attack that much, but as a team we are trying to score any way we can. We want to be able to have the talent to put it away, and that’s why we train for offense and defense.”

The Hoosiers will open up the Big Ten Tournament as a No. 4 seed and play No. 5 seed Michigan State in the opening game of today’s tournament schedule.

The Spartans defeated the Hoosiers 3-1 in East Lansing, Mich., during their regular season Oct. 28 matchup.

Despite allowing the Spartans three goals, the most scored on the Hoosiers by any team this season, IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he will not make any major changes in the team’s defensive game plan.

“The score line might tell you to make changes, but we need to dig deeper than that,” he said. “We just need to play tougher and be better with our challenges. We are going to anticipate better, and we need to rotate better defensively with their two forwards.”

Given that fact, Soffner said the team is ready to come out more focused and aggressive in this win-or-go-home culture of the postseason.

“Every game counts right now,” he said. “Out of the four years I’ve started, this is the one I want the most. It is my last year, and we are coming off a disappointing regular season finish, so we’re really (looking) forward to getting out and getting clicked in.”

With eight combined years of experience between Konstanski and Soffner, conference tournament play is nothing new for them.

Lately, the Hoosiers have started freshman midfielder Richard Ballard, who will encounter his first collegiate postseason experience.

“The older guys have been telling me about tournament play, but I just need to experience it firsthand to truly get into it to do my best,” Ballard said. “This will be a great revenge game, and I can’t wait to get back on the field to take it to them.”

Konstanski said revenge would definitely be a motivator against the Spartans.

He said the team would look for a new atmosphere without the Hoosier Army there to support them.

“Finishing my regular season in Bloomington was a weird feeling because it’s been a great four years with those fans,” he said. “We understand we won’t have them in Chicago, and (Assistant) Coach (Brian) Maisonneuve said at the beginning of the season that champions create their own atmosphere. We’ve been really focused on doing that this postseason.”