Indiana University Athletics
Men's Soccer Named Preseason No. 1
8/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Aug. 4, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - For the third time in the last four years, the Indiana men's soccer team is ranked No. 1 in the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30. The Hoosiers also garnered the top spot in the preseason poll in 2002 and 2004. IU returns eight starters and 15 lettermen from last season's second straight NCAA Championship club. The Hoosiers will look to three-peat, for the first time in school history, after winning back-to-back national titles each of the last two seasons.
"It is always an honor to be ranked No. 1 in the country no matter when it is, but we would ideally like it to be at the end of the season," Indiana head coach Mike Freitag said. "We started out the season as a consensus No. 1 in the preseason, and we ended there as well. We want to try and achieve that feat again this year. Being ranked No. 1 during the preseason is an honor, but now we have to go out and prove it."
Half of the Hoosiers' 2005 schedule includes teams ranked among the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30. Those teams include No. 3 Maryland, No. 10 SMU, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 17 Northwestern, No. 19 Notre Dame, No. 20 Saint Louis, No. 24 Ohio State, No. 29 Michigan and No. 30 Cal State-Northridge. Three other 2005 opponents (Boston University, Penn State and Akron) are listed as receiving votes.
The No.1 billing from College Soccer News was the second such ranking of the season for IU from the website. The Hoosiers' incoming freshmen class is ranked No. 1 by College Soccer News. The class includes goalkeepers Joe Andrews (St. Louis, Mo./DeSmet) and Chay Cain (Aurora, Ill./ Waubonsie Valley), midfielders Brian Ackley (Cary, N.C./Athens Drive), Lee Hagedorn (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North), Lee Nguyen (Richardson, Texas/Plano East) and Brad Ring (Rockford, Ill./ Guilford), defenders Chris Schuler (Aurora, Ill./ Waubonsie Valley) and Kevin Sparks (Bloomington, Ind./South) and forward Darren Yeagle (Louisville, Ky./Trinity).
Indiana opens the 2005 season with an exhibition match against UCLA on Aug. 19, at 8 p.m. The match will be part of the IPFW Soccer Showcase in Fort Wayne, Ind., at Hefner Soccer Fields. The Bruins are ranked No. 4 in the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30. After playing their second exhibition against Illinois-Chicago in Bloomington on Aug. 27, the Hoosiers will open the 2005 regular season by hosting the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. The Classic will be held Sept. 2 and 4 and will include No. 10 SMU, No. 14 Wake Forest and No. 19 Notre Dame.
College Soccer News Preseason Top 30
1. INDIANA
2. Duke
3. Maryland
4. UCLA
5. St. John's
6. New Mexico
7. UC-Santa Barbara
8. Creighton
9. Connecticut
10. SMU
11. Virginia
12. VCU
13. UNC-Greensboro
14. Wake Forest
15. Tulsa
16. San Francisco
17. Northwestern
18. James Madison
19. Notre Dame
20. Saint Louis
21. Boston College
22. California
23. Seton Hall
24. Ohio State
25. Santa Clara
26. Washington
27. Memphis
28. Loyola Marymount
29. Michigan
30. Cal State-Northridge
Others Receiving Votes: North Carolina, Boston University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Old Dominion, Hartwick, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UAB, Denver, Lehigh, Dartmouth, South Florida, Kentucky, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, FIU, Akron, Portland, Hofstra, Princeton
