After starting the year with a win against Indiana State, IU women’s soccer struggled on the road. Losses to Eastern Michigan and Georgia Southern were games the team felt were winnable.
With the program seemingly experiencing an upswing and expectations rising, Berbary said the early losses tested her young team.
But after a both physically and emotionally draining overtime victory against UC Irvine Sunday, the Hoosiers have been able to regroup with only one weekend slate of games before the Big Ten season starts Sept. 12.
“We were finally able to take a deep breath,” Berbary said. “I think we were getting really anxious and worrying about so many things that didn’t matter except for the task at hand. Now, I think we’ve relaxed a little bit now that we got that win and we can push forward.”
The Hoosiers will travel to Columbus, Ohio, this weekend for the Ohio State Tournament, hosted by the same Buckeye team the Hoosiers will play against to open Big Ten play next week.
But IU (2-2) won’t take the field against Ohio State in the tournament.
The Hoosiers will play George Mason (1-3) at 4 p.m. Friday before playing Dayton (2-1-1) at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The tournament doubleheader marks the second consecutive weekend the Hoosiers will play in early games away from home in a neutral environment.
For a team still preparing for a grinding Big Ten season, Berbary hopes her young team continues to grow this weekend and learn from the challenges of being away from home for the fourth and fifth consecutive games.
“I think it’s really good for our growth to be on the road like this,” Berbary said. “I think it’s a difficult environment to be in and I think we’re growing as a team because of that.”
Competitiveness in the opening half is an area Berbary said she hopes to see growth in this weekend. The Hoosiers have struggled at times this season to start games with the energy Berbary said she wants to see.
The result has been allowed goals, forcing IU to play from behind early.
All but one of the Hoosiers’ five goals allowed this season have come in opening halves.
To combat this, Berbary said she has broken the game into quarters with the goal being to win each ?quarter. She hopes this will help IU play more consistently throughout the entire 90 minutes.
“I actually love breaking it up,” junior midfielder Jessie Bujouves said. “It keeps us more mentally engaged.”
Despite some early growing pains, sophomore midfielder Veronica Ellis said she thinks her team is going in the right direction.
She said she thinks the team found something in Sunday’s most recent win and hopes to see it continue through this weekend and into Big Ten play.
“We kind of went through a bit of a tough time,” Ellis said, ”but we all said this is our chance to start turning things around as we get ready for the conference season.
“It’s not a time to point fingers, it’s a time to look at yourself and figure out what you can be doing to help the team win. We just need to keep it going.”
