The Pennsylvania native will try to help her team earn points against a pair of ranked opponents on the East Coast this weekend. Before playing at No. 11 Penn State on Sunday afternoon, Smith and the IU team will face No. 23 Rutgers at 7 p.m. Thursday in Piscataway, New Jersey.
“I get to see all of my friends from home,” Smith said. “My non-immediate family comes too because it’s hard to get out there. My mom emailed me a list of 20 people that I have to sign the sheet for. It’s awesome to play in front of everyone that I know.”
The Scarlet Knights enter this weekend’s competition with a record of 9-2-1. However, their early-season success has not necessarily translated into the Big Ten season. Rutgers is just 2-2-1 in conference play, coming off a win and a draw last weekend against Michigan State and Michigan, respectfully.
The Scarlet Knights are paced offensively by a pair of forwards. Sophomore Colby Ciarrocca leads Rutgers in scoring with three goals and three assists in 12 games. Graduate student Cassie Inacio has also netted three goals, while assisting twice in the process. Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Casey Murphy and Rutgers lead the Big Ten in shutouts, with nine. Murphy and the Knight defense will look to stymie a Hoosier attack that has had trouble scoring.
“I’m hoping that a couple of us can step up,” senior midfielder Jessie Bujouves said. “Our success isn’t going to come from one person. We’re all in this as a team. It would be nice to have a person putting in a couple more goals, but we have to take positive and focused. It’ll come. You may get three opportunities in a game, you need to make them count and finish them.”
On the other side of the ball, IU will look to build off last Saturday’s offensive shelling against Iowa. The Hoosiers were able to drill 20 shots in the direction of Hawkeye goalkeeper Hannah Clark — with nine being put on goal. IU must make the transition to finishing those changes in order to qualify for the Big Ten tournament later in the season, IU Coach Amy Berbary said.
“It’s going to take one person to step up and make a play inside the box,” Berbary said. “That’s something we’ve lacked all year. When you look at our team, we don’t have that one superstar, especially on the attacking side of things. We’re just looking for someone to make a play.”
With just six games remaining in the regular season, the Hoosiers are now forced to place more and more attention on qualifying for the Big Ten tournament. With only three points, IU is 12th in the Big Ten. The top eight teams will qualify. The race is close, though, as Rutgers is in eighth place with only seven points.
The road to the postseason will not get any easier after IU faces Rutgers on Thursday. The Hoosiers will travel to Penn State for Sunday’s matinee game against the Nittany Lions.
“It’s the nature of the season,” Berbary said. “We’re lucky to play in the conference that we’re playing in and get another shot to get ourselves back into this thing. The conference race is pretty tight right now, so we just have to focus and execute the chances that we get this weekend.”
