Midfielders guide potent offense

Junior Kelly Kram can't explain it.\nFreshman Emily Hotz shrugs her shoulders and smiles.\nThey mutter "practice" and "hard work" ' all the usuals, but when it comes down to it, they are clueless.\nIn the end, no one can explain the offensive explosion that has vaulted the women's soccer team to three consecutive 3-0 wins, and nobody seems to care.\n"I don't even know what's going on," said Kram, a midfielder, after scoring twice in IU's 3-0 win over New Hampshire Saturday. "It was all luck. I never score. I had more goals this tournament than I did all of last year."\nKram finished the weekend with eight points, high for the tournament, tallying three goals and two assists. Kram, the top returning scorer from last year's team, is three points shy of tying her point total for all of last year.\nAnd her three goals matches her total from all of last season.\n"She's the leader on the field," said coach Joe Kelley of Kram. "She's the person that is going to make this team go this year. And we're going to look to her to provide the leadership on the field.\n"She's stepping up to the challenge so far."\nWith her eight points over the weekend, Kram made the six-woman All-Tournament team as the tourney's leading scorer.\nKram's outburst stole the offensive clout from Hotz, who has contributed five points in three games, including an assist over the weekend.\nHotz, a midfielder from St. Louis, stole the show in the opening game with a pair of goals against Xavier.\n"(Hotz) is going to be very a very solid player, and she's shown that so far," Kelley said. "As a freshman, she's very good. But we're going to demand that she gets better."\nThe three wins are in stark contrast to last year's first three games, where IU was battered, going 0-3 and only scoring two goals.\nIn their three wins, the Hoosiers have outshot their opponents by an average of 19-6, and have dominated in every category in all three contests.\nThe Hoosiers have scored on their first shot in each of their three games, gaining the lead in the first 10 minutes in each of their contests. \n"This year there's just a different attitude," senior forward Wendy Graves said. "We believe we can win. \n"It makes everything more fun. It's always more fun when you're winning."\nHotz said the advances in the spring and summer are starting to show now, as well. IU went 4-0 in spring games as well as winning both exhibition games last month.\nShe also attributes that time to the advances in her own game as well as her early season goals.\n"Hard work pays off," Hotz said. "I guess luck was on my side too, but it's the hard work that puts you in those positions"