Field hockey goes 1-1 during weekend

In Friday’s game against the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks, the Hoosiers had the largest recorded crowd for the 2013 season when 519 spectators showed up at the IU Field Hockey Complex.

Despite being outshot by four and allowing five more penalty corners, the Hoosiers were victorious, defeating Miami by a score of 3-2. The win extended IU’s winning streak to six — the longest since the 2009 season.

Junior midfielder Caitlin Bearish scored the first goal of the game nine minutes in after she broke past the goalkeeper and hit a shot to the left of the cage.

Junior midfielder Audra Heilman was credited with the assist on the play.

Eight minutes later, Heilman scored her eighth goal of the season when she hit a shot to the left of the cage off a rebound.

After being held scoreless during the first half, Miami got things started quickly in the second half when Valentina Neira scored a goal left of center four minutes into the second period.

One minute later, senior forward Mariella Grote scored her first goal of the day with an assist from senior forward Emily Bowker.

After Grote’s goal, both teams were held scoreless until Miami’s Emily Gruesser scored from the left side of the circle off a pass from Alyssa Logan with 14 minutes remaining.

That would be the last goal of the game as the Hoosiers (6-3, 0-1) held the Redhawks to extend their winning streak.

Heilman said the team knew off-ball movement would be important in order for the Hoosiers to create scoring opportunities.

“Our forwards did a very good job today working off of each other, which was something we focused on this week,” Heilman said.

Senior back Danielle McNally said she thinks the early momentum swing helped IU control the tempo.

“Getting two goals early in the first half definitely gave us momentum,” McNally said. “In the second half our defense stayed calm and controlled, which helped us control their forwards.”

But the Hoosiers’ winning streak was brought to a halt Sunday when the No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions defeated IU 4-0.

Penn State was ahead five minutes into the game when Ashtin Klingler scored unassisted off a rebound to the right of the cage.

Fifteen minutes later, Penn State scored again off of a penalty corner. That would be the last goal of the first half.

Penn State’s leading scorer for the season, Taylor Herold, scored unassisted off of a rebound to the right of the cage 12 minutes into the second half.

One minute later, Klingler scored her second goal of the game, which would end up being the last goal of the game.

The Hoosiers were outshot by 13 and allowed 13 penalty corners, which was 10 more than they attempted in Sunday’s game.

Although the team lost its first conference game of the season, IU Coach Amy Robertson said the team isn’t discouraged by Sunday’s result.

“The team is looking at a way to learn from it,” Robertson said. “They aren’t falling apart and thinking that we aren’t any good. It’s nice to see the team respond in a way that they think they can win these conference games.”

Follow reporter Dan Matney on Twitter @Dan_Matney.