The Iowa softball team will compete against Nebraska in Lincoln.

By Mario Williams | [email protected]

The Iowa softball team will attempt to continue its momentum during its road-game double-header today against Nebraska.

Iowa dropped its first two Big Ten games against Purdue April 1-3. The team finally got things clicking after it won against 10-3 on the last day of the series. Collectively, it was its best game of the series and Iowa got its first Big ten win.

“We’re almost there; we just need a little push,” sophomore Allie Wood said after the team’s win.

Wood registered back-to-back home runs in the win against Purdue. She also accounted 5 of the Hawkeyes 10 RBIs in the win. With her success, the team looks forward for her to continue through Big Ten play.

“It’s nice to see when a kid can get hot,” Iowa head coach Marla Looper said. “It’s great to see someone come through and give us that boost we need.”

Nebraska and Iowa met three times last year, and the Huskers won all three contests.

Nebraska recently lost its first game of the series against Maryland but won its last two. In fact, the Cornhuskers dominated on both ends in its last game against the Terps, winning 26-4 in only five innings of play.

The Huskers are 3-3 in conference play, while Iowa is 1-5.

Four Hawks hit .500 or better in its series against the Boilermakers: sophomore Sara Kurtz (.677), Wood (.556), redshirt junior Sammi Gyerman (.500), and redshirt senior Holly Hoffmann (.500).

Iowa will surely have some competition though — eight Huskers are hitting above .300 for the season.

Kiki Stokes (.437), MJ Knighten (.425), Mattie Fowler (.341), Lotte Sjulin (.333), Alyvia Simmons (.327), Alicia Armstrong (.322), Kaylan Jablonski (.306), and Dawna Tyson (.302) have all been good for Nebraska at the plate this year.

Pitcher Cassie McClure leads the team with a 3.21 ERA and a 13-6 record.

Freshman Mallory Kilian has added spark at the plate for Iowa. She’s hitting .311 on the season and has started in 17 games thus far for the Hawks. She’s also registered 17 hits in 54 at bats. In addition to this, the freshman owns a slugging percentage of .593 and is getting on base during nearly 40 percent of her plate appearances.

Iowa’s pitchers have struck out 54 batters this season, tied for the second in the conference. Along with this, the Hawks are tied for third in the conference with 41 stolen bases and tied for seventh in triples with 5.

“There’s still some things we can always get better at,” Looper said. “It feels good. It’s nice to kind of carry that into this next week.”