St. John's gives group its first loss of the still young season

IU got its first taste of being a nationally ranked team this weekend, coming into Friday’s match against Hofstra as the No. 25 team in the nation.

It also experienced its first defeat in a 2-1 loss Sunday against St. John’s.

The 6-1 team almost gained that loss earlier, when IU came from two goals behind with nine minutes to go to beat Hofstra in double overtime by a score of 3-2.

“St. John’s really pinned us back,” IU coach Mick Lyon said. “It was disappointing because we gave the ball away so easily in the second half. They came at us with three forwards and had another midfielder pushing up as well.”

The Hoosiers struck early as junior midfielder Chloe McKay scored her first goal of the year in the 10th minute.

IU continued to play very aggressive in the first half, outshooting the Red Storm 9-5. They had multiple opportunities to score, including a pair of corner kicks toward the end of the half.

“We had a couple of breakaways that we should have done better.” Lyon said. “A couple of times we got to the end line and had a chance to increase the lead that St. John’s blocked the ball a couple times.”

In the 73rd minute, Storm senior midfielder C.J. Ludemann scored a goal to tie the game
at 1-1.

Red Storm senior forward Sarah McGrath put St. John’s ahead for good three minutes later.

The loss ends IU’s winning streak of nine games, dating back to the end of last season, where they didn’t play in the postseason.

They return home this week to play Butler (2-4) on Wednesday.

The IU offense stopped it from succumbing to Hofstra Friday.

Senior defender Kelly Lawrence took a direct kick from midfield in the 81st minute that took a big bounce off the wet artificial turf in the box and into the upper right corner for the goal.

In the 88th minute, sophomore midfielder Devon Beach assisted a goal from senior defender Christie Kotynski that tied the score at 2-2 and pushed the game into overtime.

Midway through the second overtime, Lawrence took a direct kick and passed it to Kotynski, who rifled a shot into the upper-right corner for the game-winning goal.

It was Kotynski’s second of the game, as she propelled IU to a victory against a Hofstra team that has gone 39-10-4 at home since 2003.