Tying Indiana 1-1 on Friday was a success for the Kent State soccer team. Losing 2-1 to IUPUI yesterday was a disappointment, as the team was distracted by the Jaguars’ physicality.

Despite the team’s preparation this week for Indiana’s offense, the Flashes (1-3-2) made an early mistake. A deep pass from Indiana defender Kerri Krawczak got past the Kent State defense, where one of the Big Ten’s leading shooters, Orianica Velasquez, was there to gather the pass and put the ball into the back of the net.

“With a player of that caliber, if you let her loose, she’ll finish,” Marinaro said.

The goal was an early setback for some players.

“It hurt a little getting scored on that early,” junior goalkeeper Sherwood said. “It put us on our heels. But we were able to regain composure and fight back.”

For others, the goal was an instant motivation.

“When they scored, it pumped us up to prove who Kent State was,” senior forward Kelly Heaton said. “It was an opportunity to fight back and show who this team from the MAC is.”

The Flashes found this opportunity early in the second when senior defender Vanessa Salerno slipped a pass to Heaton, who scored her second goal of the season.

“When Vanessa played me that great ball, I knew I needed to finish for the team,” Heaton said.

The players said they did not feel intimidated playing in front of the loud audience.

“The atmosphere was great,” Sherwood said. “There was a lot of fans heckling, and it really pumped us up.”

Sherwood collected seven saves despite the hecklers.

“Going on the road against a Big Ten team like this, we’re showing the strength of this program,” Coach Marinaro said. “The strength of this team.”

After the team’s strong play against Indiana, yesterday’s loss to IUPUI was upsetting.

“I thought that coming off a great performance on Friday, we needed to come out strong and back it up with another strong performance, and I think that it was a let down,” Marinaro said.

Marinaro said he felt the team failed to play their game and got wrapped up in IUPUI’s physicality.

“I think there were a lot of things that went wrong today, but ultimately, I don’t think we paid close enough attention to our game and the things that we were trying to do,” Marinaro said. “We let them dictate the pace of the game and the physical nature of the game.”

Kent State gave up an early goal in the 13th minute to IUPUI’s Sarah Colby. Colby received Ashley Doreski’s lead pass through three Kent State defenders and scored her first goal of the season.

Nine minutes later, freshman forward Jessacca Gironda scored her fifth goal of the season to tie the game.

“Jess is stepping up right now and doing a fantastic job,” Marinaro said.

“It’s not like it’s me,” Gironda said. “Other plays lead up to it. Annie Messer went in and won a 50-50 ball, and then slipped it on into space and I ran on to it.”

The score remained tied until the 52nd minute, when IUPUI’s Megan Hock headed in a cross from Colby.

The Flashes continued to pour on the pressure in the final ten minutes, but lost its 11th player when Sherwood was sent off the field on a red card for interfering with an IUPUI player. Freshman Christine Pellegrino came into the game to play goalie and recorded one save.

“We had every opportunity to take the game over,” Marinaro said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t put our opportunities away. That’s something that we need to key in on and something that we need to do a lot better next time.”

The Flashes will play at Miami at 4 p.m. on Friday and at Bowling Green at 1 p.m. on Sunday to begin its conference play.

Contact Alex Atkinson at [email protected].

The weekend

Kent State 1, Indiana 1 (2OT)

Scoring:

2’ Velasquez (Krawczak) — IU

56’ Heaton (Salerno) — KSU

IUPUI 2, Kent State 1

Scoring:

14’ Colby (Doreski) — IUPUI

23’ Gironda (Messer) — KSU

53’ Hock (Colby, Brock) — IUPUI