Team seeks redemption for tough loss

The IU women's field hockey team heads back home this weekend after splitting two games, as it will face off against No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions today and the Kent State Golden Flashes on Sunday. The Hoosiers (5-2, 0-1 Big Ten) head into this weekend's matches looking to redeem themselves after a tough 6-0 loss to No. 9 Michigan State. Coach Amy Robertson is hoping that playing at home will make for a more exciting game.\n"We are really looking forward to these games," Robertson said in a statement. "They are big games for us and should be very exciting to watch and exciting to play in for our players. We are excited to be playing at home, and I'll take playing at home against anyone, any day. Anything can happen here."\nThis game marks one of the most difficult of the season for the Hoosiers as last year Penn State was the national runner-up. This year the team is off to a 9-2 record with one of their two losses coming against No. 9 Iowa. \nAlthough the Nittany Lions lost to one top-ranked team, they have had their way with several others as they have beaten No. 17 California and No. 10 Princeton. The Nittany Lions are led by senior Timarie Legel who currently has seven goals and nine assists in just 11 games this season. Although the Nittany Lions have a potent offensive attack, averaging almost four goals a game, they are led by a strong defense that has allowed less than one goal per game on average. \nRobertson knows that if the Hoosiers are going to win this weekend they are going to need to play better team defense then they did in last weekend's 6-0 loss to Michigan State.\n"The first way we are approaching the games this weekend is by focusing on some organizational things for us," she said. "Defensively, we need to be more organized as a team. We had been playing pretty individual and getting away with it. If we are to continue to be successful and have a good game against Penn State and Kent State, we have to be organized on defense. So the first focus has been on ourselves and improving on things we need to improve." \nThe game today will begin at 6 p.m. while the game on Sunday will start at 1 p.m.\nTeam Notes:\nThe Hoosiers enter this weekend with the opportunity to set the school record for most wins in a season. The current record is six. The Hoosiers are also only five goals away from tying the school record of 22 goals in a season. Individually junior Kayla Bashore broke the scoring record in one season for the Hoosiers last weekend with her sixth goal of the year. Bashore also broke the record for most points in a season as she now has 13.