No. 24 IU women’s soccer’s winning streak ended at two games Thursday afternoon, with the team’s 2-1 loss against No. 13 Penn State at Holuba Hall in State College, Pennsylvania.
The loss comes after the Hoosiers won two consecutive home games against Rutgers and Iowa and dropped the season opener at Northwestern. The team is 2-2-0 on the season.
In the first half, the Nittany Lions took four shots to the Hoosiers’ three, including a rocket from senior midfielder and forward Frankie Tagliaferri that drilled the top crossbar. The Hoosiers also committed seven fouls to the Nittany Lions’ two, and Penn State was steadily in control of possession for most of the half.
Despite some early struggles, the two sides were tied at 0-0 at halftime.
“Our goal every game is to create as many chances as we can and not give away chances,” said head coach Erwin van Bennekom. “I thought we created at least an even amount, or maybe a couple more chances than they did, but we just didn’t capitalize on them.”
In the second half, the Hoosiers made an early statement. Set up by a corner kick and assist from freshman defender Anna Aehling, senior defender Hanna Németh floated the ball into the top left corner of the net for her first goal of the season in the 52nd minute, putting IU ahead 1-0 against the reigning Big Ten champions.
Just one minute later, the 1-0 lead was erased by a shot from Tagliaferri for Penn State that rolled past senior goalkeeper Bethany Kopel to tie the game up at one goal each. In the 60th minute, Penn State senior midfielder and forward Sam Coffey scored the go-ahead for the Nittany Lions, and seven minutes after scoring the game’s opening goal, the Hoosiers found themselves trailing for good at 2-1.
“After we go up 1-0, we didn’t do a great job of managing that, including myself. We gave up a goal, and we never really felt a rhythm until they scored two goals,” van Bennekom said. “I think at that point, we started playing our best soccer of the season.”
Despite not being able to equalize in the final third of the match, the Hoosiers had numerous attempts to tie or take the lead, a late effort van Bennekom said he was proud of.
IU will next face Maryland at 11 a.m. Sunday morning at Ludwig Field in College Park, Maryland. The Terrapins are 0-3-1 on the season. The Hoosiers won’t be returning to Bloomington before the match, instead heading directly to College Park, ahead of Sunday's contest.
“Maryland is a good team, we tied them 0-0 last year,” van Bennekom said. “We’re going at it, and we want to win.”
