Hoosiers discover success comes in twos

This weekend the IU women's soccer team had two gritty performances and two stellar halves of soccer against two teams from Chicago. They can thank two freshmen for these results.\nThis weekend the Hoosiers went 1-0-1 against DePaul and Northwestern, to improve to 6-3-2 (3-1-2) on the season.\nFriday night, at Bill Armstrong Stadium, IU defeated DePaul 1-0. The Hoosiers scored in the 15th minute, when freshman forward Kristen Zmijewski put back a rebound from junior defender Carly Everett.\n"Carly (Everett) crossed it in and we've been working on finishing those passes in practice" Zmijewski said. "The keeper bobbled it and I was able to score."\nIt was the second consecutive game that Zmijewski registered the game-wining goal for IU. The Hoosiers dominated the Blue Demons in the first half, out shooting DePaul 10-0, and out cornering them 4-0. In the second half, coach Mick Lyon decided to replace his starting junior goalkeeper Shaunna Daugherty with junior Kristen Pimlott. Pimlott turned aside four DePaul shots, as they peppered her with 10 shots on goal.\n"It was fun to be out there with everybody" Pimlott said. "I was not told I was going to play until halftime, but I wasn't nervous, just really excited to get out there and play."\n"We have two great keepers" Lyon said. "It was a great chance for Pimlott to get experience, and she really handled it well."\nThe star of the game for the Hoosiers on Friday was Zmijewski. A candidate for Big Ten freshman of the year, Zmijewski showed once again why Lyon can't keep her out of the lineup, with a dominating performance.\n"Kristen is an extremely talented and creative player", Lyon said. "Her best years are certainly ahead of her, and she's doing wonderful now."\nThe Hoosiers held on for the win as DePaul outplayed IU in the second half. Pimlott made several key saves, and the defense thwarted any quality Blue Demons scoring chance. The Hoosiers were fortunate when a foul was called against them right on the cusp of their penalty area in the 87th minute. It appeared as though the DePaul player was dragged inside the penalty area, but the referee awarded a free kick instead of a penalty shot, which was knocked away by the defensive wall of IU. \nLyon said his team played well enough to find a way to win Friday night. \n"The players battled hard" Lyon said. "They rolled up their sleeves and dug deep to pull this one out."\nNorthwestern came to town on Sunday, looking to hand the Hoosiers their first home loss of the season. It looked good for Northwestern early as they scored just 41 seconds into the game. Senior Aileen Guiney tallied that goal when her corner kick went straight into the net. Six minutes later Guiney tallied an assist on another corner kick goal, this one by sophomore Carolyn Hack \n"We came out really flat in that first minute" Daugherty said. "Those two goals were bad mental mistakes by the team and I. We should have come out sharper."\nThe Hoosiers looked uninspired in the first half, trailing 2-0 and being dominated. Northwestern, who entered the game tied for last in the Big Ten, outplayed IU in the first half by outworking the Hoosiers,and dominating the play physically. \n"In the first half, we watched them play and didn't put a body on their players", Lyon said. "In the second half we wanted to come out and pressure them more."\nThe Hoosiers came out in the second half and still looked like a team confused, until freshman forward Robin Barker scored her first collegiate goal in the 68th minute. Barker scored on a deflection from junior midfielder Emily Hotz, and gave the Hoosiers a wake up call. \n"When I saw the goal, I was wondering, did that just go in?" Barker said. "It was awesome to get that first goal and to get us on the scoreboard."\nBarker wasn't the only freshman to step up in this game. Zmijewski once again scored a huge goal for the Hoosiers, netting her third goal in three games (all game winners or equalizers) to tie the score at 2, in the 81st minute. After Zmijewski's goal, Armstrong Stadium erupted, and the crowd really became a factor. \n"We knew we had to pick it up at home", Zmijewski said. \n"It was so important for us not to lose this game at home" Barker said.\nZmijewski, who is quickly getting a reputation for scoring huge goals for the Hoosiers, said she felt just as excited for that goal as the other ones. "It was really exciting putting that one in" Zmijewski said.\nSenior midfielder Kara Bryan hit the crossbar in the waning second, and the game went into overtime. In the extra session IU had the momentum, and controlled the game, but couldn't score another goal and had to settle for a 2-2 tie.\n"We should have won this game, but we can't hang our heads low after this one" Daugherty said.\n"You have to credit the girls, they rolled their sleeves up and battled back." Lyon said. You can't start a game down two goals, and expect to win very often. We are finding ways to get results and that is very promising."\nThe Hoosiers motto this year is to "Outwork Every Opponent." This weekend, they can claim that they did that for two of the four periods they played. It was enough for a successful weekend though.\n"This weekend was a solid B performance", Lyon said. "We were undefeated at home, we got four points, one point in the conference, and that is important."\nHe can thank his two freshmen for that.