Last year, Indiana women’s soccer took care of Youngstown State University, winning 6-1. On Sunday, the Hoosiers continued their winning trend, coming away with a 3-1 victory over the Horizon League school.
Within six minutes, Indiana had already recorded three corners. Finally, the Hoosiers cashed in on a corner in the first half when senior midfielder Kennedy Neighbors scored an assist from junior midfielder Maggie Ledwith.
Youngstown State challenged the goal, but it was ultimately upheld after review.
Playing in the midfield, Neighbors made a significant impact on the game defensively. After the team’s previous match against Hampton University, head coach Josh Rife commented on Neighbors’ versatility on both sides of the ball, and Neighbors herself backed this idea up after the conclusion of Sunday’s match.
“[My teammates] have a lot of confidence in me to play on both sides of the ball,” Neighbors said in a postgame conference. “I love being able to use both skills to help the team out.”
Throughout the game, Indiana was aggressive on defense, rarely giving Youngstown State a free moment in their half to reposition. Early in the game, Indiana junior forward Aleyna Quinn set the defensive tone by pressuring Youngstown State’s defensive back line into moving the ball around. Rife commented on Quinn’s defensive activity.
“It’s not just defenders who play defense,” Rife said postgame. “I think it starts with our front line, and obviously it’s Aleyna out there really pushing to make sure we’re making teams uncomfortable.”
This proved to be true, as all positions from Indiana’s side were constantly putting pressure on Youngstown State players to keep the ball moving or have it taken away and turned into an offensive opportunity.
However, the first half ended without much fanfare for Indiana offensively besides Neighbors’ early goal. The Hoosiers finished with five shots and eight corner kicks, while Youngstown State did not attempt a single shot and did not earn a single corner in the first half. From there, Rife challenged his players to be more aggressive on the ball and try to make more of an effort to make a goal happen.
“The challenge at halftime was ‘We’ve got to find a few more moments to put a ball in the back of the net and try to put this game away,’” Rife said.
Following this, the Hoosiers attempted 13 total shots, finishing the game with 18 shots, 10 of which were on goal. This added aggressiveness near Youngstown State’s goal, combined with 10 more corners, helped the Hoosiers secure two more goals in the 48th and 73rd minutes inside the box, from Quinn and Ledwith.
One big part of Indiana’s attack in this game was their opportunities off corner kicks. The Hoosiers finished the game with 15 corners, but not a single goal came directly from those set pieces, unlike in the last game. After the match, Rife talked about how the team could capitalize on those opportunities more and turn them into goals.
“Earning corners is a really important thing because it means you’re probably in a good spot,” Rife said. "I’d probably go one step back and say ... ‘How do we take those chances that teams are knocking out for corners? How can we turn that into us just serving a ball and scoring from a run of play?’”
Indiana women’s soccer next plays Bellarmine University at Bill Armstrong Stadium to finish off their early season homestand on Aug. 21st. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m., and coverage will be available on B1G+.
Follow reporters Leonardo Vesperini (@leovmedia and lvesperi@iu.edu) and Will Kwiatkowski (@WKwiatkowski_15 and wdkwiatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana women's soccer season.
