Given his choice, Todd Yeagley wouldn’t have picked No. 2 Maryland as No. 5 Indiana’s opponent to open up Big Ten play.

The showdown between the preseason No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference comes not even a full month into the season.

Like it or not, the Terrapins are coming. They’ll face off against the Hoosiers at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bill Armstrong Stadium in an early-season showdown of two teams with national championship aspirations.

“We take every game the same way, but Maryland coming into town is obviously a little bit extra,” senior midfielder Tanner Thompson said. “Since I’ve been here our results against Maryland haven’t been great, so it’s exciting. It’s a good game. There should be a good crowd, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Indiana is 0-2-2 against Maryland since the Terrapins joined the Big Ten in 2014, which includes a scoreless draw in the 2015 regular season before Maryland advanced out of the Big Ten semifinal ahead of the Hoosiers with a 3-2 win in penalty kicks.

Yeagley said he expects to see Maryland two or three times a year between the regular season match, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament based on the programs’ trajectories into perennial title contention.

“It’s become a big rivalry,” Yeagley said. “We just really enjoy playing them.”

Part of what makes the rivalry as interesting as it is is the difference in styles of play, Thompson said.

Yeagley coaches defense first, expecting to hold opponents off and score in transition.

On the flip side, Maryland tends to push numbers and score. Sophomore forward Gordon Wild, the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, transferred into the program over the offseason and already leads the conference with five goals and 11 points.

“They’re as talented as anyone in the country,” Yeagley said, “and in some regards, maybe the team to beat.”

Friday’s installment of one of the more competitive rivalries in the nation may not be indicative of the true potential on both sides. Apart from being early in the season, a hurdle both teams need to manage, IU will be without defensive leader Grant Lillard, a junior who received a red card last Sunday’s draw with Stanford.

Yeagley wouldn't say who will replace Lillard, but he and Thompson both praised the work of redshirt sophomore Timmy Mehl who's replaced Thompson unexpectedly once already.

“I thought Timmy Mehl came on and did a great job,” Thompson said. “He’s a good player. He’s itching for a chance to play more, and he’s going to get one in the Big Ten opener.”

Whoever wins Friday’s match will immediately jump into the Big Ten’s driver’s seat to win the conference’s top seed. Though it’s unlikely both teams will win out the remainder of the season, the tiebreaker may come into effect down the line should IU and Maryland continue to rattle off wins.

One way or another, Thompson said it’ll be worth watching.

“They’re a great soccer team,” he said. “Whenever we play them, it’s a good game. It’s a good matchup. It’s always an entertaining game. So I think that’s part of it is the way I think we both play, it’s always going to be a good game when we play.

“We know it’s going to be tight and the difference is just going to be a goal every time. It’s definitely fun.”