Indiana University Athletics
IU Spring Recap (4-26-04)
4/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- After capturing the 2003 national championship, the Indiana men's soccer team began preparations for its 2004 title defense during its spring training sessions and five spring games. IU closed the book on its spring training last week, and new head coach Mike Freitag learned a lot about his team.
"I'm very pleased with how the spring season went. Overall it was nice to have the period to workout going into next season. It served as a nice transition. I felt like there was a lot of teaching and learning going on," Freitag said. "Though I'm not satisfied with the results, I'm happy with the progress we made and the way we played."
Indiana kicked off is spring slate on March 28 with contest against the Lindsey-Wilson (Ky.), an NAIA soccer powerhouse. The Hoosiers walked away from the match with a 1-1 tie. On April 3, IU returned to the site of its national title win over St.John's at Columbus Crew Stadium. Indiana went toe-to-toe with fellow College Cup participant Maryland and picked up a 1-0 victory over the Terrapins. The Hoosiers earned a 4-1 win over Evansville in Bloomington on April 8. IU closed out the season with a pair of ties, including a 1-1 draw against Butler at North Central High School in Indianapolis on April 14, and a 0-0 stalemate with Louisville at Armstrong Stadium on April 16.
"All of the games were close," Freitag commented. "It's good to realize that it's not going to come easy and we're going to have to be at the top of our game next season, especially with that big target on our back. They know they have to be willing to prepare for the challenge.
"Though the goals didn't come easily, we created numerous scoring chances," Freitag added. "We just need to sharpen up and finish our chances."
Freitag was pleased with the strides the team made.
"I saw improvement in several individuals," Freitag said. "It was a great time to give our kids that redshirted this season some game experience. We experimented with several ideas to see how we can improve our team, and we found out that we have several options in both players' positions and formation. We return most of our starters. The wide midfield position is the one that is really wide open. Several players got the opportunity to show what they can do. It was also a good time to look at the back-up goalkeeper position. We needed to get Nate Scherpenisse and Chris Munroe some game experience since Jay Nolly is going to be a senior."
When all was said and done, Freitag was both pleased and impressed with his team.
"All in all I was very happy with the effort and play. I would have liked to come away with more than two wins and three ties, though it was against quality competition. It's a joy to work with these players. They are a great group of guys who work hard together. There are no egos, and they work for the team."
