Women's soccer finally hits the road

The IU women’s soccer team will play outside of Bloomington on Friday. It will be the team’s first road game since enduring a 32-day, eight-game homestand in which the team posted a 2-5-1 record.

Awaiting the Hoosiers are three road games against  Big Ten rivals in the next seven days.

The Hoosiers (4-6-1, 0-2-0) have not left Bloomington since an Aug. 29 game at Butler.
The Hoosiers lost their first two Big Ten contests to Northwestern and Wisconsin last week and are tied for eighth in the conference standings.

IU will face Michigan State at 7 p.m. Friday in East Lansing, Mich. and will play Illinois at 2 p.m. Sunday in Champaign, Ill.

Both opponents are tied with IU in the Big Ten standings. All three teams are looking for their first conference win. The Spartans fell to Penn State, and the Fighting Illini lost to Minnesota in their conference debuts.

IU coach Mick Lyon made some adjustments on the lineups during last Sunday’s Wisconsin game. He pulled junior forward Carly Samp back to the midfield in order to serve a better link between the forwards and the backline.

Lyon arranged a film session before Thursday’s regular practice, and he added a 20-minute training session on front-field free kicks.

“We want them players to use their creativity to find opportunities in the offense.” Lyon said.