'Pressure' is key to road trip

The women's soccer team is on the road this weekend for a two-game trip. They face off against the Penn State Nittany Lions (6-2-1, 0-0) Friday then make their way to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Buckeyes (4-4, 0-1) Sunday afternoon.\nThe Hoosiers are looking to bounce back after going 0-2 and giving up three goals in their Big Ten season home opener last weekend. That might not be an easy task considering IU opens up the road trip against the No. 7 Nittany Lions, who have won nine in a row.\nA bright spot for the Hoosiers is the return of sophomore forward Kristen Sprunger. Sprunger has missed the past month with a stress fracture in her right fibula. Last season she was third on the team with seven points, collecting two goals and two assists.\n"It's hard sitting down for six games when you want to play and you feel like you can," Sprunger said. "It's scary because everybody has progressed through six games and (I) haven't. I have a lot of catching up to do."\nIU gained an advantage Sept. 12 when Penn State lost their all-American goalkeeper to injury. Junior Emily Oleksiuk went down with a facial injury in a win over Cornell where she suffered a concussion, a lacerated lip and a broken cheek. Oleksiuk will be out indefinitely.\n"It's a shame," IU coach Joe Kelley said. "You hate it when anybody gets hurt. You want to play teams like that at full strength and really test yourself."\nThe Hoosiers are looking to up pick up the ground they lost last weekend in the conference openers.\n"The other five games don't matter now," junior midfielder Kelly Kram said. "We need to do better in the Big Ten to do better this season. We dug ourselves into a nice little hole there."\nIU wants to play their own game to be successful this weekend and make up ground in the Big Ten. \n"We need to go out and be really aggressive against Penn State and Ohio State," Kram said. "That's how we do the best. If we put a lot of pressure on teams then they start to back down. We realized this weekend we need to pick it up, and I think we'll do a lot better under pressure."\nThe defense had been a bright spot for the team this season, not allowing a goal in the first four games. But last weekend the Hoosiers allowed three goals, including a season high two against Michigan. \n"We're just going to have to keep our shape better in the back and be more solid defensively," senior back Jena Kluska said. "The intensity starts in the back. We have a lot we have to work on but we'll be fine this weekend. I think we'll come out winners here."\nIU just wants to get back to the form they displayed before the beginning of the Big Ten season, Kelley said.\n"No matter what the results are, I think both games are winnable," Kelley said. "We have to reestablish ourselves as a team that dictates and puts pressure on the other team as much as possible. If we do that and the results come out they way you want, great. If they don't, not great. But if we still do that, it's only going to help us the next game and the next game"