BLOOMINGTON, Ind.  – The Indiana women's soccer team (9-7-1, 4-5 Big Ten) continued its strong play with a 2-0 win over Minnesota (9-7-1, 4-4-1 Big Ten) on a cold and rainy night at Armstrong Stadium Friday. Abby Smith tallied her fourth game-winning goal of the year and Sarah Stone made seven saves to earn her third shutout of the season for the Hoosiers.

 

“Our defense was extremely organized tonight, led by two of our seniors, Molly Buynak and Ciersten Burks,” Indiana head coach Mick Lyon said. “They really had everyone where they needed to be and made it really tough for Minnesota to get on goal.”

 

Indiana has now won three straight games in Big Ten play and four of its last five. It is the longest winning streak in conference play for the Hoosiers since the final three games of the 2008 season.

 

Minnesota registered 16 shots in the game while the Hoosiers had six but the Gophers put seven on goal while Indiana had five on goal.

 

Indiana found the back of the net for the first time at the 21:50 mark in the first half when Rebecca Candler found Abby Smith wide open at back post and Smith put home her fourth goal of the year to put IU ahead 1-0. Each of Smith’s four goals have ended up being game-winning goals while Candler extended her single-season school record for assists with her 10^th of the year. She also pushes her consecutive games with a point streak to six games.

 

Just over seven minutes later at the 29:06 mark, Becca Zambon raced up the right sideline and fed a ball into the box that was corralled by Orianica Velasquez. The senior forward then, in one motion, turned towards the goal and sent a laser shot inside the far post for her seventh goal of the season to put the Hoosiers in front, 2-0.

 

The goal by Velasquez is the 26^th of her career, moving into a tie for fourth place all-time at Indiana.

 

Stone registered seven saves to pick up the shutout in goal for the Hoosiers, the third shutout for the redshirt freshman in just her fifth start.

 

The victory snaps a four-game losing skid against Minnesota as well but are now 7-4 at Armstrong Stadium against Minnesota. This season, Indiana is 7-2 on Jerry Yeagley Field at Armstrong Stadium.

 

Indiana will host Wisconsin on Sunday at Armstrong Stadium with kickoff slated for 1:00 p.m. ET. The game will be available via streaming video on video.btn.com (fee required).