By Michael McCurdy
This weekend, the Hawkeye field-hockey team has a fantastic opportunity to see how far it has come regarding some of the early issues, such as lack of depth and offensive flow.
Senior Natalie Cafone is excited about that.
She and the rest of the seniors get to start off Big Ten play one last time, and for them, there is no team they would rather begin conference play with than Penn State.
“Yeah, it’s crazy [that] this is it. I know that I, Chandler, Alexandra, and Sophie will be ready to go out there,” Cafone said. “This is the last year of all of us together, and I’m just really excited to start Big Ten play off at home taking on a really competitive opponent.”
The Hawkeyes get the undefeated No. 4 Nittany Lions at 3 p.m. today at Grant Field.
The Nittany Lions come into the match sitting at 6-0, with Iowa being their second road test of the season. One of the biggest threats Penn State gives to most teams is its intimidating bench. The Nittany Lions have 27 players, compared with Iowa’s 19. This could be a problem for the Hawkeyes, who have struggled with lack of depth, but given last weekend’s performance, Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci is optimistic that the Hawkeyes will do just fine.
“Last weekend, it was great for us to play back-to-back, because we haven’t done that since Week 1, and with our lack of depth, it was great to get two shutout wins,” Cellucci said. “If we manage to have similar results this weekend and continue moving the ball, I think it’ll be a good game against a very competitive Penn State team.”
She has coached in the Iowa program for 17 years, so she knows what to expect from a talented Penn State squad.
“[The Nittany Lions] are undefeated, they have lots of depth and speed and are very right-side dominated,” she said. “We’re going to have to be able to counter their offensive attacks if we want to come out on top.”
Iowa not only has the challenge of facing Penn State this weekend, it also gets a pesky Ball State team on Sept. 18. The Cardinals will try to continue a fantastic start to this season, one they have not seen since 1999.
Ball State comes into the weekend at 4-2 with solid wins over Brown and Davidson.
The biggest challenge this weekend for the Hawkeyes will be coming away with a victory against Penn State, but if the Hawkeyes are able pull that off and defeat Ball State, they will ride some serious momentum into Big Ten play.
Follow @MMcurd on Twitter for more information on Iowa field hockey.
