After beating a top-5 Louisville team on the road Tuesday, IU will look to build off that win when it travels Saturday to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Hoosiers have faced tough opponents this season, but the win Tuesday may have been their most impressive one yet.
Coming back from a 2-goal deficit to beat Butler in extra time was important, but, after a poor performance at Notre Dame, the Louisville win got a bad taste out of IU’s mouth.
Going back to Big Ten play, IU has a chance to use the newly found momentum from Tuesday’s win.
“Now we move into the position where we have this win, it gives you the résumé but also the eyeball test,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “You look at our team over the year, and they know this is a team that is certainly a good one.”
Within the program, coaches and players talk about having two seasons happening simultaneously with the conference schedule and the nonconference slate.
Now the team has to lock in for what remains.
The nonconference matches gave IU an RPI boost, but the Penn State match was important in the conference standings. Yeagley said IU needed to get two out of the last three results, and it managed to accomplish that.
“It went well,” Yeagley said. “Certainly, we would like to be 3-0 in this stretch, but I was pleased that we got the conference game and one of these two road games against the one- and two-RPI teams in the country.”
Now it’s back to the Big Ten and the final four regular season matches. IU may not face top teams like Notre Dame or Louisville, but what is left on their schedule could set them up nicely for the Big Ten Tournament.
The Hoosiers control their own destiny to grab the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
With matches against Wisconsin and Michigan State coming up, IU could avoid Maryland, which is poised to finish in first place. Those games come later though. Right now the focus is on Ohio State.
Ohio State has six points and is tied with Penn State for fifth of eight teams in the standings. Ohio State has allowed more goals than it has scored, but Yeagley said it is still a good team.
“It reminds me a little of Penn State — better than their record,” Yeagley said. “This team was one of the better teams in the country a few years back, and they have a lot of players back. They’ve had a lot of bad fortune go their way.”
Ohio State features a balanced offense with three players that have scored four goals each, and only five Buckeyes have scored overall. IU has prided itself on defense all season long, and it shouldn’t expect that to change.
IU senior forward Richard Ballard is the co-leading goal scorer for the Hoosiers, and while he hasn’t scored since Sept. 20, he said there is one thing that stays constant.
“I’m always hungry,” Ballard said. “That doesn’t change game to game.”
