The No. 16 Hoosiers opened up the season this weekend at the UC Santa Barbara Winter Invite where they played ranked teams in all five of their games.
IU Coach Ryan Castle said his team played through tough conditions this weekend, and he’s proud of the way the Hoosiers pushed through and performed at the same level they normally do indoors. IU finished the weekend with a 3-2 overall record.
“There was terrible wind and terrible rain, but our athletes rose to the occasion,” Castle said. “The girls are used to playing indoors, so we had to push through and play out of our comfort zone.”
The Hoosiers got out to a hot start against their first opponent, No. 25 Cal State Bakersfield, by scoring four goals in the first quarter and allowing just two go into the back of their own net. Junior Sarah Young lead the game with four goals and managed a hat trick. The Hoosiers pulled away in the fourth, though, by scoring five goals en route to a IU 13-6 victory.
Castle said he was very proud of his team for winning its first game of the season, which was an objective of his to start out the year. He also said he was proud of Young for stepping up when the team needed her most.
“It’s very early in the season, but the team is doing a good job of improvising and creating holes,” he said. “We have had to rely on Sarah Young to move to the center of the pool, and I expect our offense to step up more as the season progresses.”
In the second game of the first day at the invitational, IU had its hands full with hosts No. 9 UC Santa Barbara. The Hoosiers matched the Gauchos and managed to tie the score up multiple times, but UCSB came out on top in the end, 8-4.
In the first game of day two, IU faced No. 23 Cal State Northridge. Freshman Mollie Williams, junior Sarah Myers and Young all managed to score in a 3-2 first half of play. IU held on to close out the game with a 6-4 victory.
Coming off the win over Northridge, IU faced No. 3 UCLA in its biggest test of the weekend. The Hoosiers were outscored in each quarter and the Bruins won, 20-5. Five different Bruins scored hat tricks in what was a dominating performance.
Castle praised UCLA for its depth and skill in the pool. He said he respects their game and knew it was going to be a hard-fought game.
“UCLA is very experienced, and I favor them to be the No. 1 team in the country,” Castle said. “They’re very deep, fast and physical. I was very impressed with their level of play, and they caught us off guard.”
Castle said he was proud of his team's defense, and thought the team executed very well for its first few games of the season.
In the third and last day of the invitational, IU was pitted against No. 6 Hawaii. The game had great significance because Castle had previously been an associate head coach with the Rainbow Warriors. The Hoosiers managed to get an 8-5 win against a top-10 opponent. Junior defender Kelly Matthews led the way with five goals. The score was tied going into the fourth quarter, but after a Hawaii goal IU responded with three more of its own to finish out the game. This was IU’s first win against a top-10 opponent since it took down No. 10 Princeton on Apr. 10, 2015.
Castle said it was tough to play his old squad, but he’s happy that his current team managed to come out on top.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I’m so proud of my current group, and we executed all the things we worked on in practice. Hawaii is a team where I put a lot of effort in the past few years, but ultimately I’m proud of our group and they way they performed.”
Castle praised veterans like junior goaltender Jessica Gaudreault and Matthews for their experienced leadership and tactical organization. He said without them IU wouldn’t have been as successful defensively. Excluding the UCLA game, Guadreault only allowed 19 goals in four games.
“The highlight of the weekend was the defense,” Castle said. “We had one little hiccup against UCLA, and we made mistakes we don’t usually make. We made up for it against Hawaii, and offensively we played pretty well. I think we can improve more offensively, but for now we managed to perform well enough to win.”
