Team travels to St. Louis for tourney

The Hoosiers travel to St. Louis this weekend to participate in the Toys For Tots/Military Academies Women's Soccer Classic. Friday they face off against St. Louis University at 7:30 p.m. and then Sunday, they go against Army at 11 a.m. The Hoosiers enter the tournament hungry and in search of their first win of the season. Senior goalkeeper Shaunna Daugherty said the team is anxious to play in the tournament.\n"Going into St. Louis is exciting because a lot of girls on our team know girls from the other teams," Daugherty said. "We want to come in and establish ourselves as the powerhouse team."\nFor the Hoosiers, there will be plenty of familiar faces as the team boasts five players from St. Louis. The five is comprised of seniors Shelly Gruszka, Erin Hesselbach and Emily Hotz, sophomore Ryan Hanley, and freshman Lauren Lamping.\nIn order to improve upon their unfortunate losses already this season, the Hoosiers have been working feverishly on defense in practice, but also have been trying to work out the kinks in their offense. Junior midfielder Kim Grodek said the team has been working hard in practice this week.\n"We've practiced a lot of defense," she said. "However, one of our main problems so far has been finishing on offense, so we've also been working on moving up the field."\nThe Hoosiers will be facing some stiff competition this weekend. So far this season, St. Louis is 1-0-0 and Army is 2-0-0. Last year, the teams respectively finished with overall records of 12-6-0 and 12-2-2. With just two weeks left until Big Ten play begins, these games have become must-wins for the Hoosiers. Grodek said these two games are important for the team.\n"These games are important because we only have a couple of weeks left until Big Ten play starts up," Grodek said. "We want to leave this weekend with some wins under our belt."\nIn order to garner a win this weekend, the Hoosiers must get their offense going. So far this season, the Hoosiers have yet to score a goal in regular season play, and have only scored two total goals in two exhibition games. Daugherty said the team has been using its two losses as motivation, instead of dwelling on them.\n"When we lose any game, we try to determine what went wrong," Daugherty said. "The last couple of games, we had some mix-ups on defense. We've been trying build the defense and at the same time maximize the offense."\nDaugherty said she believes that non-conference games are just as important as conference games are.\n"Non-conference games are very important," she said. "They give you a chance to gain momentum. If you can establish yourself outside of your conference, then it really boosts your chances to make the NCAA tournament."\n-- Contact staff writer Cory Steger at csteger@indiana.edu.