Coming together

The NCAA tournament has been a goal for the women’s soccer team the last three years, but the Hoosiers have always come up short. This year’s senior class is trying to change that.\nThe six members of the class – midfielders Beverly Markwort and Kate Nierman, forwards Suzie Teixeira and Lindsay McCarthy, defender Katy Stewart and goalkeeper Megan Reinhardt – are hoping that their leadership and four years of experience can propel their team into the postseason.\n“We have 20 games left and we know that,” Stewart said. “So every single game is important to us – whether we are playing at home or on the road or whoever it is. Every single game is important to us all looking forward to making the tournament and would be a great way to cap off our senior year. We know that we are capable of it; we just have to prove it on the field.”\nThe class was originally around eight or nine players deep, Stewart said, and the six that are still playing for the team said that sticking together through the last three years has made them extremely close. \n“We’ve been through a lot, that’s for sure,” Stewart said. “We are a really core group now. There were eight or nine of us that came in our freshman year, and we have all stuck it out together. We all hang out and some live together, so we just have a lot of off-the-field friendships that are important to us.”\nMarkwort echoed Stewart’s sentiments.\n“We have all grown, changed and then come together,” she said. “For me, being here four years, I have seen senior classes, but never really known what it’s actually like to be in one. It feels good, and I’m glad to know we all want the same things: to have our best year and go out with a bang.” \nLast year, the Hoosiers were looking like the best team in the Big Ten, opening conference play with a record of 5-0-1. A loss at Northwestern, however, sent the team’s season into a tailspin they would never recover from. IU lost its last four regular season games and exited the Big Ten tournament with a 2-1 first round loss to Michigan to conclude the season. \nHistory, however, is just that: history. The team is looking for this year to be the year they accomplish their goal of getting to the NCAA tournament.\n“(Getting to the NCAA tournament) means a lot,” Teixeira said. “A lot of us have been playing for 18 years, and it is just crazy that it is our last season. So we want to put everything out there and give it all we can to make the tournament this year, and hopefully go as far as possible.”\nThe senior class knows this year’s team has the potential to make that breakthrough, but it will not be easy to get there. Stewart said it will have to be their leadership late in the Big Ten season that will determine how far IU goes.\n“We have the top four teams in the Big Ten as our last games, which is a hard feat for anyone,” Stewart said. “I think just having the experience going into those games, a lot of us have had a lot of playing time throughout our four years. Knowing Illinois, Purdue, whoever else at the end of the season – we know what it takes to play against them and beat them.”\nThe Hoosiers are currently 2-1-1 and will host a pair of games this weekend on their way to starting the Big Ten season and any postseason thereafter. They will take on the Samford Bulldogs (3-1-0) at 7 p.m. Friday and Ball State (2-2-0) at 2 p.m. Sunday. Both games will take place at Bill Armstrong Stadium.