#3 Iowa Field Hockey falls to #2 Northwestern in a top five showdown

Leading up to today’s top five showdown between #2 Northwestern and #3 Iowa, head coach Lisa Cellucci mentioned that games like this are won with grit, resilience and a team that sticks to the gameplan for 60 minutes. On a day where the Iowa Field Hockey team needed to put their best product on the field, it was not there. Northwestern came away with a 2-0 victory in the 82nd meeting between the two programs.

“We played poorly,” said Cellucci. “We can play at a much better standard and we just didn’t stick to the plan. Northwestern dominated us in pretty much every facet of the game.”

Coming into today, the matchup between the two sides pitted the top two defenses in the country against each other. The Hawkeyes allowing just 0.55 goals and the Wildcats allowing just 0.58 goals per game. Based on just those stats alone, it wasn’t really that surprising to see the game get to halftime with a scoreless tie. However, after 30 minutes of play, the visiting Wildcats had a 7-2 advantage in shots and a 5-0 advantage in penalty corner chances.

The Hawkeyes were nearly able to get on the board in the 6th minute of the game. Rachel Herbine sent a ball into the circle and it found the stick of Alex Wesneski. She tried to get a shot on goal, but it slowly rolled wide and Northwestern was able to clear it out. Outside of a shot on goal in the final minute of the half, there wasn’t much going for the Hawkeyes offensively.

“They put us under tremendous pressure, which we knew would happen,” said Cellucci. “Just had a really hard time penetrating their press and then being able to build the ball.”

“We had to be able to show some different looks. We were trying to go inside, but that didn’t work and we needed to be able to play through our outside midfielders and we just didn’t have enough positional discipline to set that up.”

The defense did a solid job defending in the opening half, but the fact that they could not get sustained pressure in their offensive half was an issue. Northwestern was able to keep possession, set up looks and earn some corners. Against a team with the weapons that the ‘Cats have, allowing them to have long stretches of possession will not end well.

Just 62 seconds into the second half, Northwestern got on the board. Despite being without their penalty corner specialist Maja Zivonjovic, they were able to get a goal on their sixth chance of the game. Ilse Tromp got a look from the top of the circle and put it just inside the left post, past GK Mia Magnotta for the opening goal.

“I thought we defended well, for a while, we just obviously gave up too many penalty corners,” said Cellucci.

The Hawkeyes were not able to earn a shot in the third quarter. They forced a few turnovers, but were not able to turn them into real scoring chances. The game headed to the fourth quarter, with Northwestern leading 11-2 in shots. If Iowa was going to tie the game, they were going to have to pick it up offensively. The Hawkeyes did end up with four shots on goal in the final period, but unfortunately a goal from Northwestern in the 49th minute made a potential comeback even tougher.

Lauren Wadas forced turnover around the Hawkeyes defensive 25 yard line and raced into the circle, where she sent a shot on goal. Iowa GK Mia Magnotta never had a chance at as save, as NW forward Chloe Relford and Iowa defender Lieve Schalk screened her from ever seeing the shot. All the sudden, the ‘Cats had a 2-0 lead with 11:30 to play.

Lauren Wadas with a big-time goal against Iowa 🤔

Do you get deja vu? pic.twitter.com/AJCKfKBD9w

— Northwestern Field Hockey (@NUFHCats) October 6, 2023

With under three minutes to play, the Hawkeyes found the goal and appeared to cut the lead in half. Miranda Jackson put a ball into the circle towards the front of the goal and Annika Herbine deflected it in. For a moment, it looked as though the Hawkeyes had some life. However, after a short review, it was determined that the ball redirected off of the leg of Herbine rather than her stick, which meant the goal did not count.

At that point, it was too late for a two-goal comeback and Northwestern was able to run out the clock on their rivarly win. The Wildcats finished 14 shots, 11 shots on goal and 10 penalty corners. Iowa managed just six shots, five shots on goal and one penalty corner.

“We can be so much better than what we showed here today and that was what was disappointing to us, is that we have a whole other level,” said Cellucci. “The game could have gone very differently and we succumbed to the pressure they put on us…We have to be able to play better together.”

A 10-2 record with both losses coming against top ten teams is nothing to be upset about. However, two losses in three games with a schedule that does not get any easier means there is not much time to turn things around. Four of their last five games come against ranked teams, including three games against top ten teams.

“We have to buckle down. We have a choice to make. How we’re going to continue to practice and play,” said Cellucci. “We have a couple of top ten teams coming at us too, so there’s a lot of opportunities to still put ourselves in a really good position for the postseason, but we’ve got to take one step at a time. We’ve got to make a change in practice on Sunday.”

Up Next, the Hawkeyes go on the road on the next weekend. On Friday, it’s a Big Ten battle against the Indiana Hoosiers, while Sunday will be a matchup against #5 Louisville. Friday’s game will start at 2:00pm CT and will be streamed on BTN+.