Seniors prepare for Big Ten

The six seniors on Indiana’s roster began their playing career in 2008, a year after IU last reached the NCAA Tournament.

Senior forward Carly Samp said it’s sad this is her last opportunity to help earn the Hoosiers an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite that, she will begin her final season of Big Ten play as the center forward, something she said made her happy after the match against Xavier on Sept. 9.

“I’ve been a forward my whole career here — except for last year a little bit,” she said. “I played outside mid. I like being around the goal as a forward. It’s my natural position.”

Samp will enter Sunday’s match against Michigan looking to capture fifth place on IU’s all-time points list. She currently has 48.

Senior midfielder Kaylin Clow has learned to appreciate Big Ten conference play as her career has progressed.

“Coming in as a freshman, I didn’t realize how big Big Ten season was, how big the conference was,” Clow said.

Now that she has experience, she’s looking for better results than the 7-20-3 record IU has compiled in conference play in her prior three seasons.

“I want to (defeat) every team in the Big Ten and make it to the tournament,” she said. “We were kind of at the bottom last year. I really want to make our way up the line.”
Samp said the team must continue to work on one specific aspect.

“Our defense is a work in progress,” Samp said. “We’re trying to make sure that we don’t give up goals after we score. We’re still working on the defensive part.”
IU Coach Mick Lyon said his team must buckle down after a goal.

“After a goal is scored for or against, the next five minutes is critical,” he said. “Statistically, there are a ton of goals scored in those five-minute periods.

“For example, against South Florida, they scored in the first five minutes of the game and the first five minutes of the second half. And lose the game. We’ve done a much better job of that.”

Neither IU nor its rival from Ann Arbor, Mich. play a match on Friday. Still, Lyon said playing only one match will benefit his team.

“On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we can train a little bit longer and not have to worry about the fatigue in preparation for two games on the weekend,” he said. “We made the Big Ten season over seven weeks so what we don’t have is five weeks where we played two games every weekend. That was very tiring on the student athletes.

“Now it’s stretched out over seven weeks. It makes it better for the games. There’s more preparation time and we’re well-rested.”

As conference play is about to begin, Lyon said his team is progressing well.
“We’re very happy with what the girls are doing,” he said. “How this team is developing is top-level. It’s a joy to coach right now.”