Something felt different about Indiana women’s soccer Thursday night.
The energy in pregame was higher, the celebrations on the bench were louder and the results were positive.
Coming into the match, the Hoosiers had been searching for an offensive catalyst —someone to inject instant energy, push tempo and create chances and finish. Indiana had tallied just two goals over its last three matches heading into Thursday's contest.
The Hoosiers returned home to square off against No.24 Xavier University after dropping two consecutive road matches. In about as back and forth of a game as possible, the two teams drew 2-2 at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
The early energy translated into offense for the Hoosiers. In the 20th minute, sophomore midfielder Maggie Ledwith played a perfect through ball to the approaching freshman defender Grace Hamm. Hamm took one step and fired a shot that strung the back of the net and gave Indiana an early 1-0 lead.
The goal marked Hamm’s first career goal.
“They are a ranked team,” Hamm said postgame. “So even to have that early goal and put that pressure on them felt amazing.”
The early lead didn’t last, however. In the 24th minute, Musketeer senior forward Emma Flick played a beautiful cross that senior forward Elin Hansson finished off to tie the match up at one.
After a long scoring drought, the 62nd minute brought a go-ahead goal for Xavier. The goal came from a Musketeer corner that ricocheted off senior midfielder Olivia Rush’s header attempt, deflected off Hamm’s shoulder and into the net. After the apparent own goal, the Hoosiers had a little under 30 minutes to equalize the game.
Indiana did exactly that.
Just under two minutes after Xavier gave up the lead, the game was tied again. Senior defender Natasha Kim attacked from outside the box and fired a cross that hit the hand of the Xavier defender to give the Hoosiers a penalty shot.
Head coach Josh Rife primarily leaves the decisions of who takes the penalty up to the players, and after scoring her first career goal earlier, Hamm wanted the ball.
“She was feeling it,” Rife said. “So when she decided she wanted to step up and take it, I said ‘All right, go for it.’”
There aren’t many ways to build confidence in soccer better than scoring goals, and Hamm had all the confidence in the world that she was going to deliver in a big moment.
“I know where I’m going, and she doesn’t know where I'm going, and I’m just going to hit that ball in the back of the net,” Hamm said.
The 2-2 score would remain for the rest of the match in a result that the Hoosiers needed to regain some momentum.
Coming into Thursday’s match, the Hoosiers had a team meeting to make some changes, Rife said. There needed to be more energy, more passion and a drive to pave the path to a successful season.
“We want to make sure we’re kind of writing the script for this season and it’s not going to be what it was last year,” Rife said.
The draw against a top-25 team is a major step in a positive direction with just one non-conference match remaining before jumping into Big Ten play.
“This is going to be huge for everyone’s confidence going into the next game, but we can’t look too highly into it,” Hamm said.
The Hoosiers will honor their seniors and remain at home to take on Ohio University at 1 p.m. Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The game will be streamed on Big Ten+.
Follow reporters Noah Gerkey (@Noah_Gerk and ngerkey@iu.edu) and Will Kwiatkowski (@WKwiatkowski_15 and wdkwiatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana women's soccer season.
