Last year's Hoosier Challenge Cup was a low point in the 2016 season for IU women's soccer.
The Hoosiers slumped to defeats against LSU and SMU before finding their form toward the end of the season.
In 2017, IU will hope to reverse a trend of slow regular season starts as the season begins with two home matches in this year's Hoosier Challenge Cup at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
IU will face Cal Poly at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, the opening night of the tournament, before closing play against No. 13 Clemson on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
"We've been working very hard over these last couple of weeks trying to shake out starting lineups, systems of play, things like that," IU Coach Amy Berbary said. "We haven't had to re-teach a lot of the concepts."
Berbary hasn't had to re-teach concepts because of the number of returning players in this year's IU team. The Hoosiers graduated only three players from the 2016 squad and return 18 letterwinners from last year's team.
This includes junior forward Mykayla Brown, who led IU in scoring last season with eight goals.
Brown was honored prior to the start of the 2017 season by being named to the Big Ten Conference preseason honors list, along with sophomore midfielder Allison Jorden and sophomore defender Meghan Scott.
"Just finishing a lot of our opportunities, that was a big thing last year," Brown said. "We can definitely build on working on our offense and final balls."
IU's offensive resurgence last season was a big reason why the team qualified for its first Big Ten Tournament since 2013 with an eighth-place finish in the conference standings.
Something also on the mind of Brown is IU's ability to get points at home. IU posted a 2-5-3 home record in 2016, compared to a 4-4-1 mark away from Bloomington.
"We definitely don't want to be defeated on our home field," Brown said. "We definitely want to start out really strong since we do have a couple of games at home."
Despite being a young team last year, IU added nine true freshmen during the offseason. Jorden said while there may not be as many starting spots available for the freshmen this season, they will still have the opportunities to contribute as she did last season.
"All of them came in in great shape," Jorden said. "Just looking to add to what we already have."
In fact, IU has fewer seniors on this year's roster than last year's. The two seniors, midfielders Kayla Smith and Kylie Kirk, both were named team captains earlier this week.
"They're fantastic role models on and off the field," Jorden said. "They cover all the roles that we would have if we had 10 seniors."
Berbary is looking to her entire team, not only the senior class, for leadership ahead of the new season.
"The freshmen grew up real fast from last year, so our current sophomores, especially the ones who played a ton, are a year older and a year wiser," Berbary said.
IU begins the season with modest expectations after being selected to finish ninth in the Big Ten in a recent poll of the conference's coaches.
The four-team Hoosier Challenge Cup features IU, Cal Poly, Clemson and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, the lone school IU will not face during the weekend tournament.
