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Balance Leads Hawkeye Attack By JAMES ALLAN Following the 2011 season where two players accounted for nearly half of the University of Iowa field hockey team's goals, the Hawkeyes are finding success through another method early in the 2012 campaign… balance. Nine different UI student-athletes have found the back of the cage with three players -- junior Kelsey Mitchell, senior Jessica Barnett, sophomore Dani Hemeon -- leading the team with five goals apiece. "We knew all along that we weren't going to be able to rely on one player to score, " said UI head coach Tracey Griesbaum. "We're trying to get everyone, especially the front seven players, to hone in on their skills and help set up scoring opportunities. Whoever puts it in the goal, puts it in." "We know our role and know the scoring is not pinpointed on one person that has the expectation to be the goal scorer on this team," Hemeon's five goals are a career high, following her one goal campaign as a freshman. Mitchell has tied a career best with five strikes, while junior Aubrey Coleman is on pace for a breakout season with four goals thus far. Barnett is Iowa's top returning scorer from 2011, finding the back of the net 11 times as a junior. Without having a pure goal scorer on the roster, the Hawkeyes know they need to take advantage of every potential scoring opportunity. Coleman says the team's practice and execution on penalty corners has been a key to the early season scoring surge. "We have worked on our offensive penalty corners, which has been key to our scoring, " said Coleman, a native of Middleton, N.J. "It is something we have been really focusing on this year. The execution of each corner -- we make it mandatory that we finish or score as many as we can on our opportunities." Coleman says that each player knows their role, which has allowed Iowa to be one of the top scoring teams in the Big Ten and nationally without a go-to goal scorer. The Hawkeyes rank third in the conference in scoring margin (2.07), scoring average (3.38), goals (31), goals per game (3.44) and penalty corners (79). "We know our role and know the scoring is not pinpointed on one person that has the expectation to be the goal scorer on this team," said Coleman, who notched a hat trick in Iowa's 6-0 victory over Pacific on Sept. 9. "It is spreading the wealth and spreading that energy because everyone has the opportunity to score. " Without a "go-to" scorer, Griesbaum says execution on penalty corners is crucial, and the Hawkeyes need to finish on each opportunity. "We're expecting to be 1-for-3 or 1-for-4 on corners," said Griesbaum. "I want everyone to be improving and focusing on how to actually finish and not just be happy with a shot on goal. If you have time and space to put it in the net, it's not OK to get it on the pads all the time. We're trying to up the ante for everyone. " The balanced scoring has helped the Hawkeyes reel off five consecutive victories to improve their record to 7-2 overall, which includes a 3-2 mark against nationally ranked foes. Iowa has victories over No. 13 Wake Forest (3-2, OT), No. 20 Albany (2-1) and No. 15 Michigan State (1-0). 17