Indiana field hockey’s offense had its best weekend of the season, earning a 7-1 win over Saint Louis University on Friday and a 3-0 victory against Ohio University on Sunday.
The Billikens struck first just five minutes into the game, capitalizing on a turnover to open up the scoring.
“I thought initially in the beginning we came out really slow and too casual,” Bashore said. “For SLU to put in a goal early was a good wake up call for our team and prompted the second quarter really kicking it into the next gear.”
The Hoosiers answered the call seven minutes later when senior midfielder Mary Kate Kesler put away her first goal of the season off a corner, tying the game at one.
The quarter ended at a score of 1-1. In the second quarter, Indiana recorded 13 shots and five found the back of the cage. All five were from different players.
Sophomore midfielder Anna Gwiazdzinski’s goal led the Hoosiers into the break up 6-1.
“I really think that shows a strength that we have, not just having one or two goal scorers on the team, ” Bashore said.
With a 6-1 lead heading into the start of the third period, the Hoosiers made sure there would be no let up.
Late in the third, senior forward Hailey Couch turned and fired a goal off an assist from Curland to add to the lead.
Bashore said the team needed a relentless approach coming out of the break even with the substantial lead.
“That was what we talked about at halftime,” Bashore said. “We can’t drop our standard, we have to continue to play our game and play with discipline.”
The Hoosiers added a seventh goal in the fourth quarter and picked up a win by a score of 7-1.
The Hoosiers held their senior day against Saint Louis. The Hoosiers have four seniors on their roster, each of whom appeared in their final home game.
On Sunday, the Hoosiers traveled to Ohio to play the Bobcats in their penultimate game of the season.
It was another slow start for the Hoosiers on the offensive end, but freshman goalkeeper Arabella Loveridge made four saves in the first half to keep the score tied at zero up to halftime.
Bashore said she thought it was the play of senior forward Peyton Becker that initiated the well played second half for the Hoosiers.
“I really liked how Peyton really provided a spark for our team in the forward line,” Bashore said. “Our team was playing one speed for a while and there was this span of 30 seconds where she just was giving all out effort.”
The intensity by Becker was contagious. The rest of the team followed suit, bringing more energy and scoring twice more.
In the 37th minute freshman defender Yip van Wonderen scored on an assist from Kesler. Later in the period Dillion scored to make it 2-0.
In the fourth period with the game winding to an end, Couch added another goal off a Curland assist to seal the win for the Hoosiers.
Couch’s score was her second on the weekend, moving her into 15th all-time in Indiana’s scoring rankings.
With two wins over the weekend, the team moved to 10-8 on the year with one last game at Northwestern before the Big Ten tournament.
With the regular season coming to a close, Bashore said the team talked about its mindset heading into the home stretch.
“One of the things is just being prepared for the game against Northwestern,” Bashore said. “Just starting to bring the energy back up, it did feel like there was little lull in the energy coming off of conference games.”
The Hoosiers travel to Evanston, Illinois, to play Northwestern at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31.
