By Kyle Charters
Asst. Sports Editor

Purdue soccer coach Rob Klatte is optimistic heading into the fall season, especially considering the Boilers' success during the spring.

"We've done well," said Klatte. "We went to Texas A & M, Auburn, Miami of Ohio two weeks ago and Cincinnati. We've gotten some good results. We've lost only about three or four out of 12 of our games. We've gotten some good individual development."

The Boilers hope to get even more improvement when their spring schedule ends with two games this weekend at the Varsity Soccer Complex. On Saturday, Purdue plays Valparaiso at 9:30 a.m. and an Ohio club team at 2:30 p.m. Each game will be played with 35-minute halves, instead of the usual 45.

Klatte said playing against the club team, which is composed of high school juniors, will provide both a recruiting opportunity and good competition for the Boilers.

Klatte said the Boilers have devoted a lot of time during their spring practices to working on improving their offense, which struggled for most of last season. Purdue scored just 29 goals in 19 games last year. The Boilers scored only six goals during their 10 Big Ten contests.

In an effort to improve those numbers, Klatte said Purdue has experimented some with moving players to different positions to adapt to the changing dynamics of the team.

"Spring gives a lot of opportunities to play everyone on the team," said Klatte. "In the fall, certain players get a majority of the playing time."

Klatte said the growing experience of the team, which was made up mostly of underclassmen last year, plus the influx of 10 freshmen in the fall, will help the Boilers improve.

"Getting older definitely helps," said Klatte. "We'll have some players with experience and some players coming in that are attack-minded, which will help us because we struggled offensively.

"We're going to have a good balance between young and old," he said.