In the 104th minute, Maryland senior Shade Pratt stole an errant IU pass at the midfield to set up a give-and-go with junior Alex Doody to push the Terrapins past the Hoosier backline.
Pratt kept her dribble as she created separation and a one-on-one opportunity to score against IU junior goalkeeper Sarah Stone.
The Hoosiers had made a critical defensive mistake. IU Coach Amy Berbary has harped about what has been a recurring problem of making late errors in crucial ?moments.
Time after time, a single mistake has led to close defeats late in games and, in overtime, the breakaway goal could have spelled trouble for the Hoosiers.
But Sunday was a different story.
Stone came well off her line, forcing Pratt to rush through her shot attempt. As Pratt fired her shot, Stone connected with just enough of the ball to redirect the shot wide of the net.
“For Stone to come out and be big and brave and make that save for us just gave us the momentum we needed to push forward,” Berbary said.
The crucial save proved to preserve a scoreless tie for IU (5-8-1, 1-6-1) against Maryland (5-4-3, 3-2-2) Sunday.
Maryland generated just one other shot on goal in the 60th minute set up by a combination from junior Sarah Richtner to Pratt.
Their passing combination led to a feed to find junior Riley Barger at the top of the 18-yard box. Barger fired a shot on goal, but IU junior goalkeeper Sarah Stone was able to make the save.
Berbary said the defense played well against Maryland aside from the overtime one-on-one opportunity she said was a bit of a bad bounce.
“Defensively, we were outstanding today,” Berbary said. “It allowed us to get forward off the break.”
Despite a better transition, IU’s offense was unable to create any attack ending with a score.
The Hoosiers had four shots on goal, but none of them were too much for Maryland junior goalkeeper Rachelle Beanlands, who recorded her 13th career shutout, tying her for fifth on the Terrapins all-time list.
Berbary toyed with her lineup, putting senior midfielder Abby Smith further up top to try and create more scoring opportunities. However, the Hoosiers were still unable to connect on the right passes when they needed them.
“We’re still lacking that final ball,” Berbary said. “I think we rushed. We need to be a little more patient and have a little bit better tempo with the ball when we do have numbers forward, but other than that I was happy with our performance.”
The draw was IU’s first tie of the season and gives the team its fourth point of the Big Ten season.
The single points are better than none, but Berbary said the Hoosiers will need to focus more on taking three points in their final five games of the season in order to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament in West ?Lafayette.
“One point’s better than zero,” Berbary said. “I think we look at it, too. We’ve got to fix a few things this week and try to get us three points. I think we certainly could have done that today with a little more patience around the goal.”
