By Zain Pyarali
zpyarali@indiana.edu | @ZP_IDS
Penalty corners and aggressive attacks were at a premium Friday for the IU field hockey team. The Hoosiers had several opportunities close to goal and were able to take control in the 4-2 win against Ball State (1-7), as they moved to 3-4 on the year.
IU drew a season-high 12 penalty corners in the game, which resulted in all four goals. The previous high for corners in a game this season for the Hoosiers was five.
“Getting that many penalty corners puts us in a situation where we should be scoring a lot of goals,” IU Coach Amanda Janney said. “We were really happy with our attacking production today, to not only get into the circle, but to get a goal or get a corner.”
IU fell behind early for the third straight game, after Ball State senior Natalie Jarnell was set up by a penalty corner. The ball was settled by midfielder Bethany Hand and passed off to Jarnell, who fired the ball past a diving Noelle Rother in the 13th minute.
The Hoosiers then responded with four unanswered goals of their own, all set up via the penalty corner.
IU finally broke through on its fifth corner of the game in the 29th minute. Sophomore Abby Urbanek delivered the ball to the top of the circle, which was settled by senior Rachel Stauffer and sniped to the back of the net by junior Kate Barber to tie the game, 1-1.
“It’s really important to get up there and get in the circle,” Barber said. “We’ve been working on it a lot when we get inside the circle and getting a positive outcome whether it’s a goal or a corner.”
The aggressiveness for IU showed in the second half when the Hoosiers earned back-to-back penalty corners just three minutes after intermission.
Latino took both corners for the Hoosiers. After the first was unsuccessful on a shot by Barber, the Hoosiers were back for another. Barber fired another shot on goal from Latino, but this time Latino was able to rebound the blocked shot to put IU up 2-1.
IU went up 3-1 in the 54th minute after Urbanek took the corner for the Hoosiers. After the initial shot, sophomore Taylor Pearson was able to rebound the ball and dish it to Urbanek at the left post for her first career goal.
“I’ve been practicing that tip and corners a lot and have been focusing on my inserting this year,” Urbanek said. “To be able to execute it in a game felt really good.”
Four minutes later, Urbanek took another corner for the Hoosiers. This time she found senior Karen Lorite who was able to enter the ball into the circle where it was deflected off the stick of Charlie Kaste to put the game away for IU, 4-1.
“We’ve had a little trouble scoring the last couple of games, so to see us get so many attacking opportunities was great for us,” Janney said. “We’ve been working on our corners a lot, so it’s really rewarding for our players. All their hard work was paying off today in the game.”
The Cardinals added a late goal in the 58th minute after being rewarded a penalty corner as a result of a yellow card from junior Malia Fujisawa, but it was not a factor in the outcome.
“I think it’s preached everyday of the week, coming out with high intensity,” Barber said. “Getting all the effort out there and leaving 110 percent on the field, and we were due for a win.”
