Sophomore’s five goals lead IU women's soccer team to 2 wins over weekend

With five goals this weekend, sophomore forward Kristin Arnold outscored both opponents the IU women’s soccer team faced.\nOn Friday, Arnold scored three goals as the Hoosiers overcame a second-half surge from Northwestern to win 4-3. She netted two more in the Hoosiers’ 2-0 win Sunday over Wisconsin.\n“I had some really good balls that were played into me,” Arnold said after the game Friday. “Tonight was just my night. It’s a really good feeling to look back and know that we won 4-3, and three of the goals came from me.”\nThe Hoosiers came out firing against the Wildcats with Arnold’s first goal coming in the 11th minute of the match.\nFreshman midfielder Chloe McKay played a through-ball down the middle of the field that left Arnold one-on-one with Northwestern goalkeeper Lauren Johnston. Arnold faked a shot that sent Johnston to the ground and then played an uncontested shot into the goal.\nSenior forward Lindsay McCarthy then added her first goal of the season in the 16th minute with a header from a corner kick by McKay.\nAfter halftime, the scoring continued. Only then, it was the Wildcats who were doing the scoring.\nKelsey Hans recorded her fifth and sixth goals of the season, and teammate Shannon Schneeman recorded her sixth goal as the Wildcats went up 3-2.\n“One of the big things we talked about going into the game and again at halftime is that we have always struggled in the first half,” Arnold said Friday. “But today, we went up two to nothing and then came out in the second half and played like crap for 20 minutes.”\nShortly after Hans’ second goal in the 73rd minute, Arnold recorded her second of the night with a turnaround blast from well outside the 18-yard box that soared past Johnston to tie the game at three goals apiece.\nArnold then scored the winning goal in the 86th minute, when she caught the Northwestern defense off guard after a Wildcat goal was negated by an offsides penalty.\nAfter the win Friday, Arnold said the team needed to work on coming out and playing mistake-free.\nSunday, that is exactly what IU did as they defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 2-0. Arnold continued her great play by adding her fifth and sixth goals of the season, both in the first half. \nSo again, IU went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. But instead of looking flat in the second half, the Hoosier defense only let up four shots on goal, two of which forced freshman goalie Lauren Hollandsworth to leave her feet.\n“We have been talking about playing the whole 90 minutes of the game, because it only takes one minute where we lose concentration to let a team back into the game,” sophomore defender Jessica Boots said.\nBoots attributed the strong defense to cooperation between defenders and the rest of the team, in that forwards and midfielders dropped back to help play balls out of Hoosier territory.\nWith the two wins this weekend, IU is now 2-0 in the Big Ten and is riding a nine-game unbeaten streak complete with a seven-game winning streak. Their record now stands at 8-1-1. \n“It’s great momentum, and I’m very happy for the girls,” coach Mick Lyon said. “They have really put together a nice string of wins. And I don’t think we’ve stolen too much either; I think we have earned everything we got.”\nThe Hoosiers finished the entire month of September without a loss and haven’t lost in September since Sept. 25, 2005.\n“I’m hoping I’m not going to be known as ‘Mr. September,’ because we need to be known as the October team,” Lyon said. “We need to now take the next month and win seven in a row.”