Hoosiers face Rockets on Friday in NCAA Tournament

With its season on the line, the IU women’s soccer team will battle the University of Toledo on Friday in the Hoosiers’ first NCAA Tournament game since 1998. \nThe Hoosiers travel to West Lafayette to take on the Rockets at 11 a.m. The winner of Friday’s match and the winner of the Purdue-Oakland contest will face each other Sunday. The winner of that game will travel to College Station, Texas, and continue in the tournament.\nIU has never faced Toledo before, but the Hoosiers said they know they will have to dictate the pace of the game against the pressing Rockets.\n“We are pretty sure that they are just going to come out hard and full of energy, with really high pressure,” said sophomore defender Jessica Boots. “So we are just going to have to figure out how to deal with that and control the flow of the game.”\nToledo is a member of the Mid-American Conference, and while the Hoosiers have never faced the Rockets, they are familiar with the MAC. The Hoosiers hold a 7-1-0 all-time record against MAC schools, including a 2-1 victory over Ball State in Bloomington this year.\n“(Coach) thinks they are going to play in a 4-3-3 formation similar to Ball State that we played earlier in the year,” sophomore forward Kristin Arnold said. “They will play with really high pressure, not giving us a lot of time to play, so we have to be ready to play quick with good touches and good passes to get through (the defense).”\nArnold leads IU in goals with nine this season. But the notoriety that comes with the goals and subsequent awards – two Big Ten player of the week honors and a second team All-Big Ten selection – has led to more attention from opposing teams. Battling double teams and shadowing defenders towards the end of the season, Arnold was held scoreless over the last six games. She said she is hoping to use the extra attention to her team’s advantage by setting up her teammates.\n“Playing up top with (senior midfielder/forward Lindsay) McCarthy, I just look to get short combinations with her or dump it off and look to get behind, because I don’t have a lot of time,” Arnold said.\nIU coach Mick Lyon said Arnold’s lack of scoring recently has not been because of any lack of effort on the pitch.\n“There’s a few games where she played too quickly and making decisions too quickly because of the double teams and how quickly she was getting pressured, but now I think she has settled down,” Lyon said. “I think she played tremendously in the Big Ten Tournament. We’ve told her to remain confident in herself because we are very confident in her.”\nArnold said Friday marks a new season for IU.\n“Every game from here on out is our biggest game of the season, regardless of what has happened before,” Arnold said. “This is basically a new season starting now. We have to come out and put everything we have out there, because it could be our last game.”