Sophomore Veronica Ellis is making a habit of being in the right place at the right time late in games.
The reserve midfielder scored in the 99th minute Sunday in the first overtime period against UC Irvine (0-4) to clinch a win for IU (2-2) in the second leg of the Auburn Soccer Classic in ?Auburn, Ala.
The game-winning sequence started with a header from freshman defender Mikayla Brown around midfield that found senior midfielder Jordan Woolums on the sideline. Woolums got to the endline and sent a pass to Ellis, who finished back post for the winning goal.
“V’s a winner,” IU Coach Amy Berbary said. “She’s got that mentality ... She was in the right spot, had a good run into the box and had a great finish.”
Ellis’ goal came at a much-needed time for a Hoosier women’s soccer team that has struggled early on in the season.
Berbary said the team has struggled early on to play at a high level for all 90 minutes. To combat that, the coaching staff has been trying to break the game into quarters to help simplify the game.
“With this team I had mentioned just playing for the 90 minutes, and I thought maybe that’s too much,” Berbary said. “We needed to weather the storm the first 20 minutes and then win the next 20 minutes when we started making changes. I think we did a really good job of that Sunday.”
The win against UC Irvine snapped a two-game losing streak that had continued Friday against Georgia Southern with the Eagles beating the Hoosiers 2-1.
In Friday’s loss, IU allowed two goals to Georgia Southern in the game’s opening 21 minutes to put the Eagles up 2-0 at halftime.
The early struggles prompted a goalie change with sophomore goalie Katie Greulich taking over in front of the net to start the second half.
Greulich didn’t allow a goal — earning her a start in Sunday’s win — but the Hoosiers failed to overcome the early two-goal deficit, ultimately losing 2-1.
“KG gives us a different dynamic,” Berbary said of the change. “Her distribution is phenomenal from her hands and from her feet. She’s been very good at training, so we made the change at half and then went with it on Sunday.”
After the weekend series split, Berbary said she was pleased with the growth she’s seen in her team despite early struggles.
She said she saw a fight in her team Sunday that wasn’t always present in the previous games, which she hopes to build on with two more games this weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
“I think Sunday was probably our best performance to date as far as our chemistry starting to kick in,” Berbary said. “We went in with a kind of hard-nosed, blue collar mentality. I think that’s what we’ve been lacking.”
