2016 Big Ten Guide

Cross country • Field hockey • Football Men’s soccer • Women’s soccer • Volleyball

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WATCH 2016 BIG TEN GUIDE An Indiana Daily Student Special Publication

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CROSS COUNTRY

Hoosiers leaning on underclassmen Both cross country teams are seeing freshmen, sophomores take control

By Michael Ramirez michrami@umail.iu.edu | @mramirez9

Every team has young athletes somewhere on its roster, as well as experienced veterans to balance out the youth.

Sometimes new talent rises to the occasion and exceeds expectations.

The IU women’s cross country team has both of these features on their squad, except they have more youth than they bargained for.

Compiled of mostly freshmen and sophomores, IU Coach Ron Helmer’s team displays 16 underclassmen and just five upperclassmen this season. Of the five upperclassmen, just three of those are seniors.

“Getting the young runners more experience is going to be a huge help and will be important if we’re going to be successful,” Helmer said.

Amanda Behnke, Olivia Hippensteel and Chanli Mundy all headline the 2017 senior class for Indiana and are followed by juniors Corinne Cominator and Kellie Davis.

Behnke is the leader of the team filled with talented underclassmen, but she has been out with an injury to start the season.

Behnke’s return seems more likely to be in either the Rim Rock Farm Classic on Oct. 1 in Kansas or the Bradley Classic on Oct. 14 in

Peoria, Illinois.

“We have to get Amanda back,” Helmer said. “I’m pretty confident she will be in our top five when we get around to championship time in November. If she can get in there and be a stabilizing force with a bunch of young girls, I think it’s really important for our team.”

The rest of the roster is compiled with eight freshmen and eight sophomores, but experience isn’t everything. In their first meet of the season, the Hoosiers had seven runners finish in the top 10, which started the season off strong.

It’s good to have promising youth. Losing just one runner this offseason, the Hoosiers are looking forward to building momentum and team chemistry.

“The women’s team is almost all freshmen and sophomores,” Helmer said. “If we can coach and have the team come together to develop chemistry and trust in one another, then that’s what I’m really looking forward to.”

Helmer said he is really looking forward to developing the team this year and building on last season as well. He says he wants to watch them develop and grow as a unit, and if it is successful, they have a good shot during nationals.

The men are full of youth

KATELYN ROWE | IDS

Top Members of the IU and Miami University men’s cross country teams run during the Indiana Open 8k race Sept. 3. The IU men swept the top five finishes for the race.

Bottom Runners on the IU and Miami University women’s cross country teams race in the first two kilometers of the Indiana Open 5k race Sept. 3. IU sophomore Brenna Calder finished the race in first, leading the Hoosiers to a team win.

ated further by the coaches, and to see who needs to be redshirted. Two young runners on the women's side caught the eye of Helmer after the first meet.

Sophomore Brenna Calder and freshman Katherine Free will both compete this season and run with the team. Calder finished first at the IU Open with Free placing fifth. Both runners have shown their potential and should be a key part of the top five for the Hoosiers.

“Having them two step up gives us more depth, and that is what’s going to be the most important part to our team this year,” Helmer said.

Young runners must step up due to the limited number of upperclassmen and two girls have shown leadership skills that Helmer has noticed.

Calder and teammate Katherine Receveur are taking over leadership roles and are doing a really good job of setting a good example, according to Helmer. Not only have they shown their promise as runners, they have also become role models for the

as well, although they don’t have as much inexperience as the girls. Led by Seniors Jason Crist and Matthew Schwartzer, the men’s team is nationally ranked at No. 14.

The underclassmen on the team have impressed thus far as well with standout performances from freshmen Ben Veatch and sophomores Kyle Mau, Joe Murphy and Bryce Millar. Veatch has had top four finishes in the first two races of the season, and has made the biggest difference on the team.

Following the first meet of the season, Helmer gave Veatch a jersey for the rest of the year. Veatch didn’t fail to impress in his first official meet as a Hoosier as he placed fourth overall in the IU Intercollegiate meet, following only Schwartzer for the Hoosiers.

“Our youth really gives us some depth and I think rounds out our top five well,” Crist said. “They really push us older guys to be better and improve every day.”

All freshmen run unattached at the beginning of the season so they can be evalu-

HOOSIER TO WATCH Amanda Behnke The former Second Team All Big Ten Performer and Academic All Big Ten Selection will be out for the first few weeks of the season with a leg injury. Behnke is one of two seniors on the women’s roster that is filled with talented underclassmen.

Behnke’s return seems more likely to be in either the Rim Rock Farm Classic in Kansas on Oct. 1 or the Bradley Classic in Peoria, IL on Oct. 14, and Helmer wants to see her crack the top five on the team around early November. rest of the team.

“They’re running at the front, and they have experience,” Helmer said. “They have leadership positions on the team and I think they’re doing a really good job.”

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FIELD HOCKEY

Janney pursuing new heights in 2nd season

By Juan Alvarado jdalvara@indiana.edu | @jdsports14

Since IU Coach Amanda Janney’s arrival to Bloomington in 2015, the IU field hockey program has only moved forward.

Last season, her team obtained nine total victories while winning a program-high of five conference games. This year, they have become a rough opponent for any team that faces them.

Janney has begun her second season at the helm of the Hoosiers, and after a year of Amanda Janney adaptation, she has new thoughts, feelings and season objectives for IU. “In my second year, the pride in the team and what we have accomplished is a little bit stronger,” Janney said. “To see how much the team has been fighting and training over the spring and summer — seeing that in action in my second year, I know how meaningful these games are for our seniors.”

Janney said she thinks what makes IU special is the opportunity being in the Big Ten brings to her players.

Not only does this conference have some of the best academic programs in the country, but it also has toplevel athletic programs.

She said those who are in the conference — coaches and athletes — should be grateful for the opportunities programs like IU provide.

Janney played collegiately at Wake Forest in the ACC and coached for 10 years in the Atlantic-10 at Temple.

But after a year of experiencing the Big Ten, she said

she now believes that it’s the best field hockey conference in the country.

“I grew up on the ACC. I have a lot of pride for playing field hockey in the ACC,” Janney said. “But I think the longer I am here, the more confident I am that the Big Ten is the best conference in the nation. I see the way we treat all of our student athletes, and especially our female athletes, so well. I continue to see evidence of that the longer I am here.”

With a wealth of field hockey knowledge, Janney said her coaching style hasn’t changed from last season, but she said her style is different from those of other coaches in the Big Ten conference.

While some coaches put a lot of emphasis on strong physical plays and players, Janney likes to focus on a more finesse game without leaving behind the physical part.

“Our team is able to keep a balance between both,” Janney said. “We have strong physical players and also have people like junior Taylor Pearson who are very smooth with the ball and really exciting to watch with the finesse play.”

Senior midfielder and team captain Mollie Getzfread said it is good to have Janney leading the team because of the high standards she demands from Getzfread and her teammates “She really expects a lot,” Getzfread said. “She just really tries to get us to see our true potential and know how good we are.”

Getzfread said sometimes when the team is not performing well at halftime, Janney pushes the team to do better in the locker rooms, and it works.

Senior team captain and

DEONNA WEATHERLY | IDS

The IU field hockey team celebrates its first goal in its Sept. 11 game against New Hampshire at the IU Field Hockey Complex. Coach Amanda Janney is looking to improve on last season’s 9-10 record.

defender Kate Barber said the biggest asset that Janney provides the team is her knowledge of the game and her management of the team.

Barber’s favorite piece of advice from Janney is to give everything you have in every game. In the end, it doesn’t matter if the team doesn’t perform well, because they can recuperate the following weekend with more hard work.

In contrast to last season, Janney doesn’t view IU as the underdog of the confer-

ence and believes the team is ready to stand among the best teams out there after earning the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament last season.

“I think last year we were really just trying not to be last,” Janney said. “We were just trying to be eight and make it into the tournament.

This year, our expectations are extremely higher. We are looking at the top — be number one in the country, not only getting into the tournament, but really succeed at it.”

HOOSIER TO WATCH Kate Barber Senior defender Kate Barber has 12 goals on the season and is leading the nation on goals scored as of September 23. The also team captain has scored in seven consecutive games and is a crucial member of not only the offensive but also the defensive Hoosier side.

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FOOTBALL

MICHAEL WILLIAMS | IDS

Junior quarterback Richard Lagow looks to pass in the second quarter on Saturday, Sept. 24 at Memorial Stadium. IU lost 33-28.

The Money Maker IU Coach Kevin Wilson’s bet on Richard Lagow is paying off

By Taylor Lehman trlehman@indiana.edu @TaylorRLehman

After three games of Division I college football, IU junior quarterback Richard Lagow said he still needs to get better.

Nobody knew how the junior college transfer would perform in his first games replacing Nate Sudfeld at quarterback, but through three games, his Hoosiers are 2-1 and he has a touchdown-tointerception ratio of 7-to-5.

So how can he get better?

The quarterback made a simple answer after the Ball State victory.

“The first game I would’ve liked to start better,” Lagow said. “The second game I would’ve liked to finish better.”

Unlike most seasons for the Hoosiers, the first game of the season wasn’t in Memorial Stadium. Lagow went to Miami to play Florida International for his first game with a Division I team.

That’s not an easy task for a quarterback who has a new feature running back and an offensive line that lost an NFL-caliber tackle.

The scrambled pieces were evident in the beginning of the FIU game, as the Hoosiers punted or turned the ball over on seven of their first nine drives.

But Lagow and the Hoo-

siers finished with two touchdowns in their last three drives in addition to a touchdown on junior linebacker Tegray Scales’ interception.

In the game against Ball State, IU scored 20 points in the first half but only scored 10 in the third quarter and none in the fourth quarter.

“We just want to continue to put the whole package together and then stack a lot of those up in a row,” Lagow said.

Now, with his worst game behind him – a 33-28 loss to Wake Forest, featuring five interceptions – the Hoosiers are limping into the Big Ten season, where they start with the Michigan State Spartans at home.

The defense was able to bind the Demon Deacons to just 10 offensive points off turnovers, but after five interceptions, many fans were calling for junior backup quarterback Zander Diamont.

IU Coach Kevin Wilson didn’t listen though. He left the junior transfer in, and Lagow responded by setting a single-game IU record for passing yards with 496. But it still wasn’t enough to overcome the Wake Forest lead.

Even with his teammates and coaches’ support, Lagow remained critical of himself after the loss though.

“If I would have handled as well as I could have, I

would have stopped throwing interceptions,” Lagow said.

When he first arrived on campus to workout for the team, Wilson said he needed to work on his footwork, mobility and progression within the pocket. Wilson wouldn’t commit on a quarterback until a little more than a week before the season started.

But as the offseason workouts progressed, Wilson began to give Lagow and junior quarterback Zander Diamont the majority of the first-team reps, which then led to Lagow receiving the bulk of the snaps. Diamont and sophomore quarterback Danny Cameron split most of the back-up reps with freshman Austin King seeing some time.

Suddenly, Lagow was named the starter, and the fan base was ready to see what he could do at the position.

The fan base debated whether or not the new quarterback could lead the Hoosiers to a second bowl game in two years.

Against FIU, Lagow threw two different passes for 28 yards — his longest passes of the game — but both of them were dump offs to sophomore running back Mike Majette in the flat and senior wide receiver Mitchell Paige in the slot.

The fans didn’t see him

MICHAEL WILLIAMS | IDS

Junior quarterback Richard Lagow congratulates sophomore wide receiver Nick Westbrook in the end zone at Memorial Stadium on Sept.

10. Moments earlier Westbrook had caught a 43-yard pass from Lagow to give the Hoosiers a 10-0 lead over Ball State. IU won 30-20.

let the ball fly like Sudfeld used to.

But in the first quarter against Ball State, Lagow stood in the pocket on his second drive, looked through his progression and fired the ball down the middle of the field 48 yards to sophomore receiver Nick Westbrook for a touchdown.

Memorial Stadium erupted in what was a long-awaited round of applause for the new transfer quarterback.

Lagow would go on to make throws of 79, 75, 65 and 50 yards throughout the next tow games as well.

“You just didn’t know how he’d handle it,” Wilson said about Lagow playing at a Division I level. “He’s always been kind of calm. He didn’t get rattled. But he’s been that

way since he’s been here. Just had a nice look in his eye.

Didn’t make the game bigger than it was.”

Now the atmosphere around Memorial Stadium is slightly different, as Lagow not only threw his first interception as a Hoosier, but his first five – in one game. That’s the second most in school history.

But Wilson remained high on him after the Wake Forest game, only blaming the quarterback for one interception.

His teammates remained supportive as well.

Senior receiver Mitchell Paige walked out of the stadium as Lagow talked to the media, turned toward his quarterback and said one sentence.

“Love you, Rich.”

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Early season powered by strong youth

By Spencer Davis spjdavis@indiana.edu spencer_davis16

It would be hard to find a sports team with such a drastically different look from one year to the next as the IU volleyball team. The roster composition has flipped to usher in a year of youth for the Hoosiers.

After two seasons with a combined three freshmen, the Hoosiers boast six on this year’s team: outside hitters Ally Badowski and Kendall Beerman, setter Victoria Brisack, middle blockers Hayden Huybers and Deyshia Lofton, and defensive specialist Meaghan Koors.

“In the past we haven’t had as big of a freshman group as we do this year, so it is awesome having them come in and step up right away,” senior outside hitter Allison Hammond said.

“Nothing ever skipped a beat or anything. Everyone goes through a learning curve even as you get older, but overall I think they are ready.

The whole team is ready.”

Sophomore defensive specialist Samantha Fogg lauds the Hoosiers’ freshmen for their work ethic and admits that the team would not have the record they have without them.

IU Coach Sherry DunbarKruzan said she has been very pleased with the performances of her six freshmen en route to the Hoosiers’ 12-3 start to the season.

“You don’t often get a lot of freshmen that come in and you feel like you can put them on the floor and that they can help you win,” Dunbar-Kru-

zan said.

The freshmen were leading the field of Big Ten freshmen in multiple categories as of Sept. 26. Huybers sits atop the conference’s freshmen in hitting percentage, and is second in aces, fifth in blocks and seventh in kills.

Beerman ranks third in hitting percentage and fifth in kills. Her 126 kills are second on the Hoosiers to only senior Allison Hammond.

Finally, Lofton leads the team in blocks per set with 1.00/set as of Sept. 26.

This year’s roster is bottom-heavy with the six freshmen and top-heavy with five seniors but lacks depth among sophomores and juniors.

Dunbar-Kruzan is proud of her seniors for making themselves available to the freshmen and helping the newcomers adjust to the new level of competition.

“The seniors have been so welcoming to this freshmen class, and they realize how much value that they can help us with this year,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “Sometimes they forget what it was like to be freshmen, so they are starting to understand how to treat them and how to give them just enough information. The freshmen have earned a lot of respect from the upperclassmen, and that’s a really good thing.”

Senior middle blocker Jazzmine McDonald, who has the 30th-best hitting percentage in the entire NCAA, echoes this sentiment and has reaped the benefits of reexploring skills that she was taught years ago.

Dunbar-Kruzan said she

VOLLEYBALL

STELLA DEVINA | IDS

The IU Volleyball team cheers before going against the Arkansas State Red Wolves on Sept. 16 at IU University Gym.

believes there is no difference in receptiveness to coaching between freshmen and seniors but acknowledged different approaches must be taken with each group.

The 10th-year coach takes more of a relaxed approach with her seniors, who she trusts to coach themselves and fix things.

Contrarily, she has to limit herself to only giving the freshmen one or two lessons at a time so that they don’t get overwhelmed and can compete without overthinking things.

McDonald said it was

not difficult to adjust from an older team to a younger team, but it was new because this year’s seniors have never really had to guide freshmen in the past, as there has been a lack of young players recently.

“Our freshmen are very on top of things and are a very good group,” McDonald said. “It’s been great because reinforcing things to my two young middles reminds me of everything I need to know.

They jumped right on board.

They soak everything up like a sponge, so we really enjoy having them.”

HOOSIER TO WATCH Jazzmine McDonald The senior middle blocker has a .394 hitting percentage this season.

That puts her in 30th place in the nation among players who average 3.33 attacks per set and have played in 66.7% of her team’s sets.

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MEN’S SOCCER

FUAD PONJEVIC | IDS

Indiana's Tanner Thompson sends in a free kick for the Hoosiers during their scoreless Big Ten match up against Northwestern on Sept. 18. Thompson is a Hoosier to watch this season.

Thompson creating his own legacy

By Josh Eastern jeastern@indiana.edu | @JoshEastern

It was Halloween night 2012.

Tanner and Tommy Thompson were in the thick of talking to schools, and it was time for a decision to be made about where they would be playing college soccer.

They were at their home in Loomis, California, and Tanner had come downstairs to talk with his dad, Gregg.

This wasn’t about the trickor-treating route for the night — they may have outgrown

that — it was a serious conversation about where the boys would be playing.

“Tanner was the real thinker of the group and evaluated things and looked at several other options,” Gregg said in a phone interview. “Stanford was another option he considered heavily. His brother was there.”

Both Tanner and Tommy were getting interest from Stanford and IU. Would they stay in California or head to the Midwest?

Gregg and Tanner were talking about Indiana. Tan-

ner told his dad, “Yeah, I think we’re going to go there,” when down the stairs came Tommy, clad in his Halloween costume and mask and ready for the night.

“Tommy, can you please take off your mask?” Gregg said. “We’re trying to figure out what you guys are doing for college.”

Tommy obliged and simply asked his brother what they were going to do. Would it be IU, where their dad was a national champion, or Stanford where their brother Tyler played?

“Tanner goes, ‘Okay, this is what I’m going to do,’” Gregg said. “And Tommy says, ‘Okay, I’m in. I’m going to Indiana too.’ So, that’s how it went down.”

IU had yet to win the national championship in 2012 when they made this decision, but that had to help aid their decision-making. They were going back to Bloomington, where their dad won IU’s first national championship in 1982 with then-coach Jerry Yeagley.

“Tanner thought about it step by step,” Gregg said. “I

On campus, everything is within reach.

provided information to him.

I may have been a little bit biased because of my background, but they came to that conclusion on their own.”

It was back home again to Indiana for the Thompson family. * * * When walking around IU’s campus, you may not necessarily notice the 5-foot-7, 150-pound Tanner Thompson.

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MEN’S SOCCER

» THOMPSON

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 He looks like any other student walking to and from class and trying to get through his school day.

On the soccer field, however, it’s a completely different story.

The senior midfielder was named the Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week in 2016 and a season ago was the Big Ten midfielder of the year and a third-team All-American.

Tanner comes from a family that has soccer embedded in its roots. His father, Gregg, was captain of IU’s first NCAA title team in 1982. He scored both goals in a 2-1 eight-overtime win against Duke in the National Championship.

His brother Tommy committed to IU with him and now plays for the San Jose Earthquakes, and his other brother, Tyler, played soccer at Stanford. For good measure, his cousin, Bobby De St. Aubin, also played for the Hoosiers and was part of the 2000 and 2001 College Cup teams.

“Tanner has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders this year and has come in the most ever prepared on and off the field,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “It’s the best shape he’s been in. He’s really taking care of his body, and he’s fine-tuning. He knows how important this year is for him.”

Now in his fourth season in Bloomington, the senior has put his name in the national conversation for player of the year and will look to lead IU to its ninth national championship.

The awards are nice, but Tanner’s not worried about that, he said. What he puts his mind on is what goes on between the lines.

“It’s nice and it’s an honor, but I focus on what I can do between the touchlines,” Tanner said. “It’s a nice thing, but I don’t want to focus on it too much.”

Thompson dribbles the ball up the field against a Stanford defender Sept. 4.

During the first weekend of the 2016 season, when he earned the aforementioned player of the week honors, Tanner came up with the game-winning penalty kick with 30 seconds left against New Mexico and then came through with an assist and a game-winning goal to lead the Hoosiers to a 3-1 win against UC-Irvine.

It’s things like these that keep the Hoosiers at the top of the polls. For Tanner, getting off to a hot start helped the Hoosiers open the season with wins and gave him confidence, his coach said.

“Having a little success early does help, it gives him a little confidence,” Yeagley said. “I think Tanner showed what you want out of any senior leader. From the first whistle to the final in both games, I thought he impacted the game in a positive way.”

The early goals in the first weekend of the 2016 regular season didn’t faze Tanner or the other Hoosiers. Thus far this season, he has been the guy for the Hoosiers, junior defender Grant Lillard said.

When Lillard picked up a red card in the match against

Stanford, IU had to come together as a team and grind out a result. They eventually did with a 0-0 draw, but the Hoosiers needed a leader, and Tanner was the guy they turned to.

Just five days later, the Hoosiers turned to Tanner again. With Lillard having to miss the game against No. 5 Maryland, Tanner was once again going to be the one that the team would turn to.

“He’s unbelievable for this team,” Lillard said. “He’s fit this year, he’s ready to go, he’s been doing a really good job for us and he’s going to continue doing that for us moving forward.”

In the match against Maryland, the Hoosiers did give up a late goal after leading for 80 minutes, but Tanner was the man pulling the strings in the midfield. It doesn’t always show up in the box score, but Tanner can have those games where he’s the main distributor or the guy who does it all for the Hoosiers.

This 2016 squad on a quest for nine is a group that is eager for success, and, as Tanner said, he has confidence in them.

NOBLE GUYON | IDS

“I’ve never been so confident in a group,” Tanner said.

“Every time I step on the field, I expect to win, and we expect to win. It’s exciting. We’re looking forward to the rest of the year.” * * * With the commitment of Tanner and Tommy Thompson to IU, it was a homecoming of sorts for Gregg Thompson.

Gregg had been talking with his former coach Jerry Yeagley through the recruitment process of his sons and he had secretly hoped they ended up at Indiana.

It was the relationship that sprouted from his time at IU that may have been instrumental in Tanner and Tommy committing.

Nowadays, the Yeagleys and Thompsons are very close, and both fathers have a relationship while their sons, coach Todd Yeagley and Tanner Thompson, have their own.

“We have a great relationship, Jerry and I,” Gregg said.

“I think Todd and Tanner have an even closer relation-

ship because Tanner has the ability to talk soccer much more than I ever did with Jerry. I think it’s one relationship between all of us that has always been very strong just because the nature of our upbringing and the times we had with championships or great runs.”

As for Tanner and Todd, the relationship is “tight” both on the field and off, according to the current All-American.

“We’re close, we discuss a lot of things on the field,” Tanner said. “Off the field, it’s like a family. IU soccer is like a family. We go over to his house for dinner, Easter, stuff like that. I’d say he’s very good about incorporating the guys and bringing them in, especially the guys from out of town.”

With Tanner being such an integral part of the program, the Thompsons enjoy being back in the program, and if it isn’t a second home of sorts, there are sentimental feelings coming back to where Gregg was once a captain.

Now when they go back to Bloomington to watch their son create his magic on the pitch, Gregg said he enjoys the compliments he hears in the crowd from total strangers about himself and his career and what is happening with Tanner.

“We go back there quite a bit, and to hear people’s conversations about me and my kids — these are all strangers in the crowd and I’m just listening,” Gregg said. “It’s interesting to me to hear these conversations randomly.

You’re part of this family, and even though you live all the way out in California, there are still all this loyalty.”

This season will be the last for this generation of the Thompson family in the IU program and with that will come the end of quite a legacy. Tanner has the chance to match his father in the history books with a national championship, but that won’t be what defines his legacy at IU.

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2016 Big Ten Guide | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Youth taking on more responsibility

By Cameron Drummond cpdrummo@iu.edu | @cdrummond97

Playing freshmen immediately at the collegiate level is a high-risk, high-reward move for a team.

While young players can provide energy and dynamic play, their inexperience can also hinder a team’s ability to perform.

However, this season, IU Women’s Soccer Coach Amy Berbary doesn’t have much of a choice. With 13 freshmen listed on her team’s 27-player roster, nearly half of the IU team is composed of first-year players.

A benefit to having so many young players available is the flexibility enjoyed

by Berbary regarding the different lineups she can create.

Some matches, like the Aug. 19 season opener against Louisville, may feature only three freshmen in the starting lineup.

Others, like Sept. 5 against Southern Methodist, can have seven freshmen playing on the field simultaneously.

“They are all young, but they’re good soccer players,” Berbary said. “I’m actually trying to get away from using the word ‘freshmen.’ They are very instinctual and very tactical soccer players who are starting to gain confidence.”

IU finds itself particularly young in attack, with nine freshmen listed as either a midfielder or a forward. Youth was a central element for the Hoosiers in non-conference play this season, with 10 total freshmen receiving playing time in the team’s first eight games of the season.

Defender Meghan Scott, midfielder Chandra Davidson, midfielder Allison Jorden and forward Macy Miller were the only four freshmen to feature in each of IU’s eight nonconference contests. Miller in

MICHAEL WILLIAMS | IDS

The IU women's soccer team celebrate an early goal in their season-opening game against Louisville on Aug. 19 at Bill Armstrong Stadium.

particular has been impressive in leading the offense as a freshman, especially after a season in which the Hoosiers only scored 11 times.

“Anyone who saw our team last year compared to this year can definitely see a more proactive and creative offense,” Berbary said. “The nerves have kind of gone away for some of the freshmen who are playing big minutes for us.”

Strong play from freshmen has also been felt at the goalkeeping position for the Hoosiers. Freshman Sarah L’Hommedieu beat out fellow freshman Bristal HadleyMautino for the starting job early in non-conference play and hasn’t looked back since.

L’Hommedieu became the first IU women’s soccer player to be given two weekly awards by the Big Ten on Aug. 30,

when she took home both defensive player of the week and freshman player of the week honors.

L’Hommedieu has more experience than most freshmen on the IU roster because she enrolled early during the 2016 spring semester. However, she credits the upperclassmen on the team with helping freshmen adjust to the college game.

“I feel like the upperclassmen and the seniors on this year’s team have done a fantastic job. They’ve been amazingly helpful,” L’Hommedieu said. “It’s a huge task to incorporate that many freshmen and make them feel like they’re a part of the team.”

Berbary echoes the praise offered by L’Hommedieu toward the older players on the team. She relies on veteran players to help freshmen

make the transition to IU. “I think the kids have really bought in. Our older kids and our returning players have been phenomenal, especially our senior leadership,” Berbary said.

Senior midfielder Veronica Ellis is one of those players trusted by Berbary with trying to provide leadership to incoming players. Four years removed from her time as a collegiate freshman, Ellis has been impressed with the way this season’s freshmen have carried themselves.

“The freshmen always bring a lot of energy. They’re always ready to go and be called on,” Ellis said. “I think they’ll continue to improve and help this team as time goes on. They’ve done a really awesome job, and they seem determined to succeed here at IU.”

HOOSIER TO WATCH Veronica Ellis With nearly half of this season’s roster comprised of freshmen, Ellis’ veteran leadership in the midfield will be crucial to the team’s success in Big Ten play.

A two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Ellis has made 72 appearances for the Hoosiers while scoring six times.

Ellis has started all 12 matches this season and recorded her first assist in IU’s 4-2 victory over James Madison to close nonconference play Sept. 11.

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