The Iowa field-hockey team improved to 6-3 after wins against Rutgers and Missouri State.
By Mario Williams
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The Iowa field-hockey team closed its five-game home stand with two big wins over this past weekend against Rutgers and Missouri State.
On Sept. 18, the Hawkeyes secured a victory against Rutgers, 4-3, albeit with an hourlong lightning and heavy rain delay. Iowa opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the game when freshman Isabella Brown ran down the field to pass the ball to sophomore Mallory Lefkowitz for a goal.
During much of the first half, though, it was all the Scarlet Knights. The team outshot the Hawks 10-2, earned 3 penalty corners, and scored a goal.
Lightning struck at halftime, and when the delay ended, the Hawkeyes didn’t let anything get in the way of their game.
“Whenever you have a delay, you have to make sure the team stays engaged,” Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci said. “We made sure our players got a little food in their systems and were ready to go so that we didn’t lose too much momentum when we got back out there.
“I thought the team handled the situation quite well. They were focused in the locker room and came out ready to attack in the second half.”
Attack is exactly what the Hawkeyes did. They scored 3 goals, outshot the Knights 6-3, and earned 3 penalty corners.
In the 43rd minute, sophomore Veronique Declercq hit a rocket past the Rutgers goalkeeper. In the 57th and 60th minute, freshman Makenna Grewe and Stephanie Norlander added some points as well.
The Scarlet Knights scored twice in the second half, but Iowa’s defense stepped up at the right time. There was 1:49 left in the game, the rain poured, and Rutgers pulled its goalkeeper to create more offense.
However, the Hawks were able to hold on and come away with the victory.
“We didn’t play as well as we liked to but, we had some good parts, and they had some good parts,” Norlander said. “It was a pretty even game, I would say.”
After the Hawkeyes’ victory against their first Big Ten opponent, the team beat Missouri State, 2-0, on Sunday.
Things got off to a slow start, and both teams were scoreless until midway through the second half. The Hawkeyes scored their first goal of the game in the 48th minute by senior Isabella Licciardello, her first of the season.
“We were pressing a bit in the first half, and we needed to calm down and play our game,” Cellucci said. “I told the team to really hold our ground and to command our skill. Missouri State was very aggressive and very physical, and we just really needed to lower our posture and be more aggressive.”
After Licciardello’s goal, the Hawks went up 2-0 after Lefkowitz scored a goal in the upper right hand corner.
The Hawks outshot the Bears 10-1 and earned 14 penalty corners.
The Hawkeyes will now leave Grant Field 4-1 and head on the road for five games, including three imperative conference games against Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan.
“We’ve made some great strides; we’ve played some awesome and hard teams, we got some good outcomes, and we’re just going to keep going up this slope and keep improving,” junior Chandler Ackers said.
Follow @marioxwilliams on Twitter for news, updates, and analysis on the Iowa field-hockey team.
