#1 Iowa Field Hockey shuts out Merrimack College
While the rest of the field hockey across the country continues to have parody with upsets and surprising results, one school has stood out as the clear number one team in the country through four weeks. The Iowa Hawkeyes. They kept up their impressive start to the season with an 8-0 victory over Merrimack College at Grant Field on Sunday afternoon. Lisa Cellucci’s squad is one of just two unbeaten teams and has now outscored their opponents 39-3 this season.
“We dominated from start to finish, so we’re happy about that. I think it’s great whenever we can get everybody in to have some quality minutes because we’re going to need that going forward,” said Lisa Cellucci. “We played some different people in some different spots, which is going to be needed to give some different looks and I thought as we got going, especially in the second half, we had some really nice simple looks at goal.”
Merrimack came into the game with an 0-6 record and a -28 scoring margin, but to their credit, their defense had some bend, but no break in the first quarter. It was the first ever matchup against a top 20 opponent for the Warriors, but after the opening quarter, it was a scoreless tie. The Hawkeyes had five shots, including three shots on goal, but could not break through over the first 15 minutes.
“We needed to look a little bit inside ourselves during that first quarter and have some discipline on our individual defense,” said Cellucci. “Once we did that and continued to move the ball and work off ball for each other, that really set up all the goals going forward.”
“I think we just needed to show up a bit earlier (in the game),” said midfielder Esme Gibson. “Defensively, our presence and readiness wasn’t there from the beginning. We got there a bit more in the second half, but we just needed to take a bit more individual discipline earlier in the game.”
The wait for a goal did not last long into the second quarter, in fact, the Hawkeyes got on the board just 97 seconds into the quarter. Miranda Jackson played a ball along the baseline, flipped it past the goalkeeper and Esme Gibson was able to tip it into the goal past a Merrimack defender for her first goal of the season.
Once the Hawkeyes got their opening goal, they settled in and started playing team hockey, which led to a lot of chances near the front of the goal. In the 22nd minute, it was another player scoring their first goal of the season. Sammy Freeman got the ball to Dionne van Aalsum on the baseline and she shoveled it in front of the goal to Alex Wesneski, who directed it past the goalkeeper to make it 2-0 Iowa.
Just moments later in the 26th minute, Wesneski scored her second goal of the game. Gia Whalen accepted a pass from Lauren DeRose at the end of the circle. She made a nifty move past a Merrimack defender, shot it towards the goal and it was Wesneski waiting to redirect it into the cage. The Hawkeyes went into the half with a 3-0 lead, including a 9-0 advantage in shots on goal.
“We see a lot in practice. Loads of different people showing up and scoring lots of goals in practice,” said Esme Gibson. “It’s really nice to see it coming in games. When you’re playing two touch hockey around a goalkeeper, it’s easy goals.”
The high-percentage looks were not relegated to the first half of play. The Hawkeyes got their first of three second half penalty corner goals in the 32nd minute. After inserting the ball to start the corner, Annika Herbine raced to the back post, where she got the redirect into the goal on the shot from Sofie Stribos.
Just a minute later in the 33rd minute, it was the other Herbine sister getting on the stat sheet with a goal. Gia Whalen sent a long outlet pass to Dionne van Aalsum, who all the sudden found herself alone behind the Merrimack defense with Rachel Herbine racing alongside. van Aalsum waited until the last second, before dumping it off to Rachel, who put it away for her first career goal.
“I made sure I was with her the whole time. I knew if she needed an option to be with her and I just prepared my feet well. I’ve had a lot of those reps in practice,” said Herbine. “She could have easily just beaten the goalkeeper, but she chose to be selfless and pass it to me. It was a great ball and I was in the right spot.”
The game headed into the fourth quarter with the Hawkeyes leading 5-0, but the two players that had linked up for the previous goal still had some goal scoring left in the tank. In the 47th minute, Iowa took advantage of another penalty corner opportunity. Dionne van Aalsum took the big swing at the top of the circle and Rachel Herbine got the redirect in front of the goal for her second of the game.
Top 10
- 1
Kiffin trolls Napier
Ole Miss HC texts Kirk Herbstreit to fire shot
- 2
Curt Cignetti
'They can stick it up their you know what'
- 3
Tim Tebow
DJ Lagway reason for Ole Miss nerves
- 4
Tom Brady helped land QB
Michigan got assist on Underwood
- 5
MSU TE hospitalized
Jack Velling injured on first possession
“Going into the corner, I know I’m going to be in the middle of the circle, so a shot going past me could be dangerous, but I know Dionne has a really good shot and usually on the ground, so I just kept my stick down and was ready for it,” said Herbine. “Any type of touch, whether right, left or up in the air is really good because the goalkeeper doesn’t see it coming.”
Just 33 seconds later, the Hawkeyes found themselves back on the attack with another penalty corner. This time, it was Dionne van Aalsum with the shortside shot and she beat the Merrimack GK for her 20th goal of the season. van Aalsum added another goal in the 53rd minute off a feed from Esme Gibson to give Iowa their eigth goal of the game.
“We had a good talk at halftime about keeping the intensity up and playing to our standard and I think that really helped going into the second half,” said Rachel Herbine. “We just kept passing as a team and playing to the Iowa standard.”
Iowa outshot Merrimack 25-0, including a 19 shots on goal and a 3/7 day on penalty corners. Five Hawkeye players finished with a goal, while Esme Gibson, Alex Wesneski and Rachel Herbine all had their first of the season.
“We need to have depth on our goal scoring. It can’t be Dionne all season and long and she had three assists and then contributed with two (goals), but it was great to see Rachel and Alex step up with fantastic goals,” said Lisa Cellucci.
Over the last two weeks at home, Iowa has taken care of business against some lesser competition, including outscoring opponents 26-1, but now the Hawkeyes are set to face some tough challenges in Big Ten play. While they know they won’t be beating teams like Michigan, Ohio State, etc by eight goals, they are looking to keep their play rolling smoothly.
“We’ve talked about it a lot, just keeping our foot on the gas and being able to play at our standard,” said Lisa Cellucci. “I think we did that for the most part, three quarters of the game today and that’s going to be so necessary going into Michigan next weekend.”
“I think it’s taking the few good things from today and really developing them in practice and making sure we build on the things that we didn’t necessarily do as well today,” said Esme Gibson. “Some of the mistakes we made, Michigan and other big time teams are going to capitalize on a lot more than teams have this weekend.”
UP NEXT, the Hawkeyes travel to Ann Arbor for their Big Ten opener against Michigan on Friday evening. The Wolverines are currently ranked 8th in the country and are coached by former Hawkeye Marcia Pankratz. The game is set to get underway at 5:00pm CT on BTN+.
