IU opens Big Ten season with two home wins

IU women's soccer coach Mick Lyon said last week his team had to have two wins this weekend and excuses wouldn't be tolerated. \nIt wasn't pretty, but his Hoosier team did just that.\nIU kicked off its 2004 Big Ten season with a 2-1 victory over Minnesota Friday and a 1-0 win against Iowa Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\n"We had a solid 'B' performance," Lyon said. "We got what we wanted which was two wins. It was a great team effort. I thought we looked organized. We didn't give up many chances and we created a lot."\nFriday night, after over 100 minutes of deadlocked, scoreless play that went into a second overtime period, a sprinting Jenna Babcock split the Minnesota back line, received a through pass and slid the ball right under Minnesota junior goalkeeper Molly Schneider to give the Hoosiers an overtime golden goal victory.\nBabcock, a redshirt freshman who is a normally a defender, was moved up to forward because Lyon needed some fresh legs in the attack. \n"I played a little bit of forward in high school, but not much," Babcock said, "I have always been a defender but they put me in up top sometimes just to run around all over the place." \nDespite IU holding the majority of possession and offensive drive to start the match, the Golden Gophers scored first in the 19th minute when junior Laura Hoppe blasted a shot into a mix of maroon and white shirts in the Hoosier penalty box and right through the hands of IU junior goalkeeper Lauren Fabbro. \nBut just a little over a minute later, the Hoosiers came right back when freshman forward Kristin Radcliffe scored her second goal of the season, cleaning up a loose ball in the Minnesota penalty box from an Ali Brown corner kick to even the score at one apiece. \nSunday, IU had the first real opportunity to score against Iowa with a minute and a half left in the first half. Freshman forward Suzie Teixeira ran around the Iowa defense in the penalty box and fired a diagonal shot toward the far post, sailing inches wide.\nSenior co-captain Kim Grodek tallied her first conference goal this year when she picked off a pass inside the Iowa penalty box in the 48th minute and poked the ball just past the outstretched arm of Iowa goalkeeper Britta Vogele to give the Hoosiers the only goal needed to beat the Hawkeyes. \nGrodek acknowledged her sixth goal of the season but said that a lot of this team's success should be credited to the defense and overall fitness of the team.\n"We've been training a lot so we're used to playing the big games," Grodek said, "Our overtime record is pretty good so I guess that says we're pretty well conditioned. Our defense has been doing really well. Last year we lost two of our middle backs so others have stepped up and done a great job in the back and Lauren Fabbro has taken care of everything else."\n-- Contact staff writer John Fischer at jbfische@indiana.edu .