Indiana’s trip to California did not go as smoothly as they had hoped it would. The Hoosiers may drop from the No.1 spot in the next poll after they dropped a game 2-1 to Cal State Fullerton (6-6-1) this weekend. They regained their winning form Sunday in a 3-1 victory over No.17 UC-Santa Barbara. Senior forward Pat Noonan scored three goals on the weekend and has 13 on the season.
All season long, it has been fairly apparent that Indiana was the top dog in the Big Ten. That position is not unfamiliar to the team, as they have won the title outright seven times since Big Ten play began in 1991.
No conference opponent truly challenged the Hoosiers for the No. 1 spot, and no other Big Ten team even has a conference record over .500, for that matter. On the other hand, the Hoosiers did not lose this year and have not lost to a Big Ten team in their last 36 regular-season Big Ten games.
Last week, Indiana swept the Big Ten player-of-the-week awards for the second week in a row. Defender John Swann received the defensive award and forward Pat Noonan won the offensive award and will likely receive the award again this week after his productive outings this weekend in the golden state.
It was surprising to all when Indiana finally lost a game. The most surprising thing was that it came to Cal State Fullerton, a team that had a losing record coming into the contest. Indiana had won 11 games in a row previously.
The Hoosiers are obviously a contender for the national championship this year, but the loss to Cal State Fullerton puts a chink in their armor, and suddenly the dominating Hooisers do not look as unstoppable as they have seemed all year.
The Big Ten picture
Indiana has a lock on the No. 1 seed as the Big Ten tournament approaches, but the race for 2nd is not over. Michigan State (10-6-0) is finished with regular-season Big Ten play and sits in 2nd place with a 3-3 conference record. Penn State also has a 3-3 Big Ten record but is in 3rd place, because they have one more loss overall. The Nittany Lions have two non-conference games left, and the Spartans have one. Those games could be important in deciding who gets the No. 2 seed for the tournament.
Looking at the standings, it might appear as if Ohio State (10-5-1) is going to end up in the middle of the pack this year. They are currently in 4th place and are 2-2 in the Big Ten. However, Ohio State is in fact the team with the best chance to finish in 2nd behind Indiana. They have two conference games left, and if they were to win both, it would propel them up the standings to 2nd place in the league. More importantly, the games are against the 5th and 7th place (Michigan and Northwestern) teams in the Big Ten and are definitely winnable games for the Buckeyes.
Michigan State had a shot to finish the Big Ten season 4-2 and secure itself in 2nd place above Penn State, but the Badgers put a stop to that. Wisconsin ended its four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Spartans Sunday. Sophomore Nick Van Sicklen and freshman Phil Doeh each scored goals and helped to improve Wisconsin’s record to 2-3 in the conference. The win is important, because it helps the Badgers in their effort to not get the last seed in the Big Ten tournament and avoid having to play Indiana. Next up for the Badgers is a home game against Northwestern on Nov. 2.
