Iowa field hockey goes 4-1 at home and looks ahead.

By Mario Williams
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Before the 2015-16 season kicked off, the stars were not aligned for the Iowa field-hockey team.

Its brightest star — redshirt senior Natalie Cafone — was lost for the season to a shoulder injury, and its roster contained quite a bit of youth.

But a 6-3 overall record, (4-1 at home, 1-0 in the Big Ten) the Hawkeyes aren’t out of the picture just yet.

“We’re still a really young team, but we’re working hard every day,” junior Chandler Ackers said. “We are a young team; we miss Natalie, too, but we’re working hard in every aspect every day.”

Working hard has been the team’s motto since the first day, and they’ve kept at it since.

The team ended its five-game home stand and came out 4-1. While the Hawks fell short to then No. 5 Stanford in a heartbreaking fashion on Sept. 10, they still managed to get their first conference win and knock out some nonconference teams, too.

And it seems as if the tough loss against the Cardinal sparked the team to finish off strong on its home field.

“It was so disappointing,” senior Liz Leh said. “We were so close; we thought we came out and played well, and we did some really great things. It just made us push harder to make sure that we get the results we want and not have another loss like that again.”

In fact, they haven’t lost a game since. Four wins in a row is exactly what the team needed to move on from its toughest loss of the season, and improve.

While the Hawkeyes committed small errors and mistakes, they still got the victories, and that’s what mattered. So far this season, the team has hit 31 goals, 3.3 per game, good for first in the Big Ten. The team also has 33 assists and has taken 144 shots, third in the Big Ten.

The Hawkeyes’ leading scorer, Stephanie Norlander, has made 10 goals and has stepped up in the absence of Cafone. Freshman Makenna Grewe is right behind with 7 goals.

Needless to say, a team many doubted hasn’t been timid in proving their doubters wrong.

“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,” Ackers said.

The team will now leave Grant Field, in which it has played exceptionally well, to face three Big Ten opponents — Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan — in addition to Ball State and Central Michigan.

Ackers said before they head on the road for the next five games, she hopes her team improves on passing the ball, pressing, and executing on penalty corners.

While there certainly have been naysayers and the team has struggled at times, it’s hard to count Iowa out of contention. The Hawkeyes are young, hungry, and well-aware they have the talent to stay with some of the best field-hockey teams in the nation.

“No matter what adversity we face, we continue to persevere, and that’s’ what this team has been doing,” Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci said. “That’s what Iowa field hockey is all about.”

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