IU eyes revenge with Oakland in town

The IU women's soccer team wants revenge and they want it bad.\nLast year, Oakland University thumped IU 3-0. This time the Hoosiers are hoping to return the favor when they play host to Oakland tonight at 7 p.m. in what will be the first of a four-game home stand.\n"We haven't played too well at home yet so we're ready to come out and basically kill a team," senior co-captain Kim Grodek said. "We've just got to beat (Oakland) just out of revenge from last year and we're excited to play at home again." \nBeating the Golden Grizzlies might be easier said than done. \nThe Hoosiers have had only four days to recover from their conference match with Ohio State and only two training sessions, but sophomore Megan Pipkens is not concerned.\n"We've just been building up to this weekend, so taking it easy is probably the best thing that we could have done," Pipkens said. "Our bodies were killed last weekend and Oakland is a strong team with big girls. We need to come out healthy."\nThe players may want their revenge on Oakland, but tonight's mid-week, non-conference game is significant and getting a win is important. \nIU coach Mick Lyon said non-conference games are the ones where the team tries to rack up wins, get points up on the board, and impress people toward the end of the season.\n"Your non-conference games are the ones you can't afford to lose, which puts the emphasis on us to come out and play well," Lyon said.\nMost importantly is that the result of tonight's game can either make or break the Hoosiers' momentum for what will be an important conference game with Wisconsin Sunday afternoon.\n"What we want to do this weekend and tomorrow is to come out with the same kind of intensity level we had last weekend and maintain that for the Wisconsin game on Sunday, and that will be the big test on the girls," Lyon said.\n-- Contact staff writer John Fischer at jbfische@indiana.edu.