Women open against Bearcats

Tonight's season opener with Cincinnati at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis is important for the women's soccer team for two reasons.\nFirst, there's a measure of revenge involved for the Hoosiers who lost last year to the Bearcats on an own-goal in the 54th minute.\nMore importantly, coach Joe Kelley said, is that Cincinnati is the first opponent on the Hoosiers schedule and a team he feels his squad can "do some things against."\n"They're important, because they're our (first) opponent. Last year's team will take a little bit of something from it, but I don't try to use revenge as a factor. We have to avoid the emotional roller-coaster," Kelley said.\nStill, Kelley and the Hoosiers said they view the Bearcats as a team that plays in their part of the country and as a team the Hoosiers ought to be able to execute against.\n"We look at them and see a team that's very talented," Kelley said. "We see a team that's in the region, which is very important. \nIt's a team we're going to have to go out and play very well against. But it is also a team that we can really take advantage of, if we use our strengths."\nWith this being the first regular season contest for the Hoosiers, Kelley's looking for the Hoosiers to come out and execute some of the things the team has worked on in practice.\n "We are really pushing to be better in all aspects of the game -- offense and defense," Kelley said. "We've done really well in segments. It's going to take a little to put it together, but it's coming. You can't expect everything to work perfectly now."\n Sophomore goalkeeper Shaunna Daugherty said the Hoosiers have added some new wrinkles to the offense that the team will be looking to implement as the season gets underway.\n"We've been working on some things; we've added some new formations," Daugherty said. "We just want to go out and do what we are capable of against (Cincinnati)."\nSenior midfielder Kelly Kram said the season opener is important because the Hoosiers want to prove to themselves that all the hard work they've put in leading up to the season has paid off.\n"They beat us 1-0 last year, and it was on an own goal. We just need to put them in their place. We need to prove to ourselves how hard we worked this off-season," Kram said.