Women's soccer closes season against Minnesota

For the third straight season, the IU women’s soccer team will miss the NCAA Tournament berth.

Despite upsetting Big Ten leader Ohio State on Oct. 31 with a 1-0 victory, the Hoosiers (6-11-1, 2-7) stand No. 10 in the conference and will close their season early again this year.

In playing host to Minnesota at 7 p.m. Friday, IU coach Mick Lyon said he hopes the team can take something out of the Ohio State win and finish up the season strong at home.

“Our goal right now is to win three out of our last four games,” Lyon said.

Without offensive anchor and sophomore forward Orianica Velasquez, who returned to Colombia to join the country’s Women’s National Team for the World Cup Qualifier, IU leaned on a goal by senior forward Jocelyn Moses in the 68th minute to beat the then-No. 18 Buckeyes.

In addition to the Ohio State game, IU beat Iowa 3-2 on Oct. 24. Junior forward Carly Samp scored the game-winner in the 94th minute.

This week, Lyon did not make a lot of changes to his training sessions except for adding more free kicks and corner kicks.

Lyon said looking back into the season, the Hoosiers did improve, but there are still a lot of things they could have done better.

“Overall, we played well,” Lyon said. “We are a young team, and I was disappointed sometimes when we let the other team score easy goals. But we have made progress. I’m just excited about next year.” 

Next year will mark the 10th season of Lyon’s tenure at IU.

Though Lyon will not have Velasquez in the last game of the season, he said he was happy to hear of her good news back home.

“Ori is doing well,” Lyon said. “She played a scrimmage game with the men’s national team and scored the only goal. They won.”