Hawkeyes well rested, focused heading into the NCAA Tournament
When the Iowa Soccer team steps on to the pitch on Friday night for the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, it will be in front of their home fans at the UI Soccer Complex. For the second consecutive season, the Hawkeyes are hosting a tournament game, and they are hoping to break last season’s attendance record.
“I’m super excited. Being able to get in the tournament is one thing, and then being able to host is a complete other thing,” said senior goalkeeper Macy Enneking. “The fact that the team has built a consistent program over the past couple years is huge…It’s always a fun environment and atmosphere.”
The anticipation for this year’s first round match has been building for longer than usual. An early exit in the Big Ten Tournament means that the Hawkeyes have been waiting nearly two weeks to avenge that loss. Although it’s been a long wait, it has given them plenty of time to reset, recover and refocus, with eyes on a deep tournament run.
“The last two weeks, a lot of rest time and getting all the bruises and bangs out of it, so we can perform at our best,” said Enneking. “I think that was the pro out of the whole tournament situation, because of that time we can take to ourselves and focus on our own game.”
“In some ways, we’re as healthy as we’ve been in a long time, but you also have had to practice against each other for 12 days and I think you start getting on each other’s nerves,” said head coach Dave Dilanni. “You’re just antsy to rectify the last game, so it has been a bit different. We’ve used it in a lot of positive ways.”
Although the Hawkeyes enter the tournament with a 13-3-3 overall record, they lost to Minnesota in the regular season finale and fell in penalty kicks to Washington at the Big Ten Tournament. Earlier in the season, after a loss to Wisconsin, Iowa bounced back with a pair of shutouts over ranked teams. Now, in the biggest moment of the season, they’re prepared to respond again.
“(Coach Dave) keeps focusing on all the work that we put in this entire year. Little setbacks and little adversity, it’s always going to happen, but it’s the way you respond that’s really important,” said Enneking. “Everyone’s coming into this game really hungry. The two losses kind of rocked us, but with the opportunity to host here, it’s super important for our team to know that we are good and we’re here for a reason.”
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Dave Dilanni’s squad is not only looking to win on Friday, but they want to do something that has never been done in program history. Make it to the Round of 16. The Hawkeyes have made four of their five NCAA Tournament appearances under Dilanni. He has directed the program both to their first ever tournament win (2020) and their first ever host bid (2023). Now, the next step is making a legitimate run.
“We’re super excited for the tournament because we know that we can make a deep run,” said forward Maya Hansen. “One of the main things (Coach) Dave’s been saying is that when we’re unified and we do things together, we are super powerful, and we are really hard to beat.”
“I definitely think this is a team that can make it to the Final Four,” said Enneking. “When we are at our best, we are genuinely unstoppable. We’re a team that makes other teams lose hope when we are playing at our best and playing for each other.”
“I’ll take this team versus anyone, and I think anyone on else on the team would say the same thing.”
The Hawkeyes will get their NCAA Tournament run underway at the UI Soccer Complex when the face off against the Missouri Valley Champion Missouri State Bears. Kickoff is set for 6:00pm CT on ESPN+.