No. 18 Minnesota entered Sunday’s matinee against IU riding a five-game winning streak, including a streak of seven games without a loss. The Gophers’ leading scorer, junior forward Simone Kolander, had scored in three straight games.
Due to a pair of long-distance strikes in the first half, Minnesota was able to extend its winning streak to six games, as the Hoosiers fell 3-1 in Minneapolis.
The Golden Gophers were able to get started courtesy of freshman forward April Bockin’s 14th minute goal. Bockin took advantage of a Hoosier turnover by sending a shot past IU senior goalkeeper Sarah Stone from 20 yards out.
IU countered less than three minutes later, when freshman forward Hanna Johnson scored her first career goal.
Freshman defender Caroline Dreher set up Johnson’s goal with a through-ball to the right side. Johnson was able to see that Minnesota junior goalkeeper Tarah Hobbs was out of position and subsequently floated a long shot over the head of Hobbs for the goal.
“It was really exciting,” Johnson said. “I just know that I’ve had opportunities that I haven’t put away. Going into this game, my goal was to make good decisions in the final third. When I got that through-ball from Caroline, it happened that the goalie was off her line, and it just went exactly where it needed to go.”
The Hoosiers conceded once more before halftime, though.
Kolander was able to score for the fourth straight game, as her long-distance shot went off the left post and in for the Gophers during the 62nd minute. The Hoosiers were not able to convert in the second half despite threatening chances off corner kicks.
“They’re a really dynamic, attacking team,” IU Coach Amy Berbary said. “I think one of the best teams that we’ve played. I thought we had a couple breakdowns in the midfield. We knew it was coming, I just don’t think we followed through to stop them on hitting those long shots.”
The Hoosiers were coming off a 3-0 loss at the hands of Wisconsin on Friday night. After the Hoosiers allowed all three goals against the Badgers in the first half, Berbary’s team was looking for stronger play against Minnesota.
“Miles better,” Berbary said of Sunday’s game compared to Friday’s. “We built off of the second half against Wisconsin, I think we put together two solid halves of effort today. We’re hammered with injuries, we have people playing very different positions. I thought our kids played the best they could. We just made a couple mistakes.”
Berbary is keen on spending the week focused on her team’s Friday game before looking ahead to Sunday. However, with one of the strongest teams in the nation, preparing for Minnesota was a bit cumbersome.
“I thought we did a good job preparing,” Berbary said. “I know we didn’t win the game, but we really didn’t play well on Friday. Instead of pointing fingers, we did a good job of finding solutions to how we could be better today. The scoreboard didn’t reflect it, but our mentality and attacking were the best that it’s been all year.”
The Hoosiers will look to build off Sunday’s offensive showing this week in practice before playing host to Iowa Saturday night. IU’s defense has kept them in almost every game this season, and according to Johnson, it’s time for the offense to do the same.
“One of our biggest issues has been our attacking and that showed on Friday,” Johnson said. “Today, I think all of us knew that we needed to be more accountable. Our defense has been rock solid all season, it was time for us to do our job.”
