IU women's soccer has a unique opportunity to accomplish two things it has yet to do this season: defeat a ranked opponent and win two games within 48 hours.
This weekend marks the last nonconference games of the season for IU and the midway point of IU's seven-game road trip. IU is 2-1 away from Bill Armstrong Stadium, after defeating Western Michigan and Vanderbilt before losing to Memphis.
“I thought we had an opportunity to put a couple away on Sunday,” IU Coach Amy Berbary said. “We need to work on more of our situational finishing and keep putting these kids in position to compete.”
First up for the Hoosiers will be a revenge game against No. 23 SMU. Last season, SMU came from behind to defeat IU, 2-1, in the Hoosier Challenge Cup after the Mustangs took their first lead with just 13 minutes left in the game.
SMU is 3-0-2 on the season after defeating Sam Houston State in a 4-1 game last Monday. Junior forward Vanessa Valadez leads the Mustangs in scoring with three goals on the season.
“SMU, they’re a really good team,” Berbary said. “We’re looking forward at getting another shot at those guys. It’s another great opportunity for us to be playing a ranked opponent.”
After SMU, IU will play the North Texas Mean Green on Sunday afternoon. UNT will be host to IU with a confident offense. In the Mean Green's last game against Houston Baptist, the team scored its most goals in a single game since 2015. Junior forward Taylor Torres and freshman forward Berklee Peters have each scored three goals this season for UNT.
If the Hoosiers defeat both SMU and North Texas, they’ll be 5-3 heading into conference play. After this weekend, IU will begin conference play at Michigan State and Michigan before finally returning home to face Purdue.
“I think it’s gone pretty well,” sophomore defender Meghan Scott said. “Usually, it’s hard to win on the road, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job beating Western and Vanderbilt. Those are big wins for us. Unfortunately, we lost to Memphis, but we still played well so we have a lot to look forward to the rest of the season."
