Battle of ranked teams kicks off weekend

The Hoosiers head to the coast again this weekend, but this time they will be heading east. IU (2-6, 0-1) participates in the Princeton Invite Saturday and Sunday. \nSaturday, the No. 16 Hoosiers will take on No. 19 Brown in the morning, with matches against Villanova and the University of Massachusetts later in the day. Sunday, IU will battle against host Princeton, who shares the No. 16 ranking with IU.\nThis weekend is significant for the Hoosiers, as three of their matches will be against conference teams. \nHead coach Barry King said he feels it's important for the Hoosiers to get off to a good start.\n"This is an important weekend," King said. "Three of the top six teams in the conference will be there. It's important to lay down that we're pretty good."\nJunior Kirstin Stanford said this weekend is also important for future tournaments.\n"We would like to get a good seed for Easterns (the conference championships)," Stanford said. "We want to come out and beat those teams."\nThe Hoosiers are coming off two consecutive victories from last weekend, including a shutout of Cal-Baptist, IU's first since 1998. \nKing credits his team's success in those matches to defense. Last week's defense was led by senior Molly Fonner, who had nine steals last week and earned Collegiate Water Polo Association Conference Player of the Week.\nKing said strong team defense will be the key this weekend. Stanford agrees.\n"We need to build off the Cal-Baptist match," Stanford said. "We should keep playing solid defense and continue our counter-attacks."\nKing said he would also like to see an improvement in his team's offense. He said the defensive problems that the team had last week were the result of bad offense.\n"We need to be more patient on offense," King said. "That (our offensive mistakes) turned into goals for the other team."\nFreshman Sharna Nelson said the team needs to pay more attention to what the other team's defense is doing.\n"We need to react to what their defense is showing us," Nelson said. "We will have better shots then."\nNelson said the two victories last weekend were good for the team's confidence. Nelson also believes that the team still has some work to do.\n"We went against the top competition, so it gives us confidence," Nelson said. "We need to play more as a team, not as individuals. At times we've been selfish. We just need to bond more"