Field hockey continues tough stretch with home game against Louisville

The IU field hockey team may be in the midst of the toughest five games on its schedule.

On Sept. 24, the Hoosiers fell 1-0 to then-No. 15 Penn State despite conceding 28 shots. Two days later, IU used penalty strokes to defeat Bucknell. On Saturday, the Hoosiers fell 4-1 to then-No. 7 Ohio State.

Today, IU plays another top-10 team in Louisville, who on Saturday defeated then-No. 5 UConn, 3-2.

The Hoosiers then travel to Evanston, Ill., on Friday to take on a Northwestern squad that defeated Ohio State.

With such games in succession, senior goalkeeper Alex Mann said the Hoosiers cannot dwell on any result for too long.

“We play Louisville on Tuesday. We have to put it behind us quick,” Mann said. “Take today, think about it and get ready for Louisville on Tuesday.”

The key to IU surviving this stretch, IU coach Amy Robertson said, is how well the team can create opportunities, namely on penalty corners.

“We’re getting into our 25, and we’re not producing anything,” Robertson said. “We have to be able to draw corners. Ohio State had significantly more fouls. We need to get it into this place in the field so that we can create a foul so we can get a corner.

“I think we got up here, but we couldn’t get in the circle. We need to get them ourselves. It’s really disappointing.”

The score from the Ohio State game did not indicate how well the Hoosiers played.

“We were doing a great job of possessing the ball,” Robertson said. “There was space to attack. We weren’t recognizing that and exploiting it. The difference was, ‘Let’s get our halfbacks up wider, let’s stretch them out. But let’s shift it.’

"Then we need to go forward. We need to get our forwards above the ball and moving. That’s what resulted in our goal. Unfortunately, we didn’t continue to attack enough on the spaces that we were given.”

Junior midfielder Jacyln Milici concurred, saying the aspects the team needs to improve upon are things within their control.

“We need to have some more urgency,” Milici said. “Keep outletting and keep learning.”

Fortunately for the Hoosiers, they welcome the Cardinals to Bloomington on Tuesday.

“We have a great opportunity to rebound from this,” Robertson said. “We have a lot of motivation. We have two days till we’re back in the saddle. I’d rather have that than a whole week to dwell on this. If we possess the ball like we did today, we have a great opportunity on Tuesday.”