#1 Iowa Field Hockey stays unbeaten, defeats UMass Lowell behind four goals from Dionne van Aalsum
Through the first three weeks of the field hockey season, not much, if anything has been able to stop Iowa from scoring goals. Today, at Grant Field, it was mother nature that tried to play a part in the game, as a pouring rain continued through much of the first half. The Hawkeyes battled through heavy rain and a tough UMass Lowell defense to put up three first quarter goals. That put Lisa Cellucci’s number one ranked team in control and they were able to defeat the Riverhawks 5-1 to move to 6-0 on the season.
“I thought UMass Lowell actually gave us a really good challenge. That’s a really good side and their strategy was great,” said head coach Lisa Cellucci. “They were trying to catch us in transition and it took us a little while to adjust, but again, we were really opportunistic with our goals and that helped us settle in a bit.”
The Riverhawks were the first ones to create a chance, with three penalty corner opportunities in the second minute of the game. The penalty corner defense held strong, as Lowell forward Alissia De Vries had two shots blocked and one saved by Iowa GK Mia Magnotta. Just a minute later, the Hawkeyes had flipped the field and while they didn’t score on two penatly corners, the first goal of the game came moments later.
Forward Miranda Jackson dribbled past a Lowell defender and sent a pass across the front of the towards the back post. The ball slipped past Alex Wesneski, but Dionne van Aalsum was waiting and slotted it into the goal for her 13th of the season. The goal came after a lengthy review and discussion on the field, but the delay didn’t slow down the Hawkeyes.
“Alex was there and she missed the ball by like an inch and I was second there and it came onto my stick,” said van Aalsum. “It was a good ball from Miranda and I think we find each other well.”
“It was great to just break through at that point and I think we took a sigh of relief like, okay, we’re alright, let’s continue to attack and stick to the plan,” said Cellucci. “They took us out of our momentum often throughout the course of the game, so we needed to just to be a little bit more consistent.”
In the 11th minute, the Hawkeyes extended their lead, as rain started to fall at Grant Field. Midfielder Lieve Van Kessel got an open look in the circle and beat Lowell GK Christina Calandra for her second goal of the season to make it 2-0 Iowa. Just a couple of minutes later in the 15th minute, Iowa was back on the attack with a penalty corner. Dionne van Aalsum connected on her shot and scored her second goal of the game to make it a three goal lead at the end of the opening quarter.
“We’ve tried to see every team as the number one team and don’t underestimate them or think that we are number one, so we are better,” said van Aalsum. “Every game starts at 0-0, so you have to perform and you have to be good.”
Then came the rain. It was not accompanied by any lightning, so the game continued on, as fans searched for umbrellas and any type shelter in the stands. Meanwhile, on the field, the Riverhawks were able to get on the board early in the second quarter. The heavy rain may have made it tougher to see for GK Mia Magnotta and midfielder Berbel Rozema sent her shot on the penalty corner into the goal to cut the Iowa lead to 3-1 in the 17th minute. Although winning 8-0 is fun, the goal created a bit of adversity for the Hawkeyes.
“We needed it because that’s what’s going to happen in the Big Ten season,” said Cellucci. “It was actually a really well executed play that they had and we’ll be able to take something from it…We felt like we really needed to clean up the defensive end of the field. Our presence and readiness were lacking at times, so that’s something we’ll address.”
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The Hawkeye defense tightened up in the third quarter and didn’t allow a single shot from the Riverhawks offense. In the 43rd minute, Iowa converted a Lowell turnover into their fourth goal of the game. Alex Wesneski stole the ball from a Lowell defender and got it to Dionne van Aalsum. She dribbled around the goalkeeper and scored a goal to make it 4-1.
Then in the fourth quarter, Iowa added an exclamation point to their weekend. Dionne van Aalsum scored on the penalty corner to make it back-to-back games with four goals. She now has an NCAA leading 16 goals through six games. The Hawkeyes have scored 26 goals through six games and are averaging 4.33 goals per game, which ranks in the top ten in the country. Lisa Cellucci says getting shots on goal, rather than finding the perfect chance has been the key.
“That’s a big part of our game. You’ve just got to put the ball on goal and anything can happen. Someone can touch it, the goalkeeper could be off balance and I love that about this group. They’re just putting the ball on goal and we’re getting so many opportunities from it.”
The Hawkeyes controlled the final stats with a 19-8 advantage on shots, including 13-5 on shots on goal. Iowa now has 99 shots through six games, which is good for 16.5 shots per game. After earning the #1 spot in the rankings on Tuesday, Lisa Cellucci says she was happy with how the team responded and took care of business this weekend.
“I think we had two different types of challenges (this weekend). I really like that type of adversity that we faced in different ways and we are just taking care of business. We’ve got to keep plugging away one game at a time.”
Up Next, the Hawkeyes have another home weekend ahead of them starting with a matchup against the Vermont Catamounts on Friday at Grant Field. They will finish up the weekend on Sunday against Merrimack. Friday’s game is set to get underway at 3:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.
“Vermont is a fantastic team. They just had a really close match against Northwestern,” said Cellucci. “They have a very dangerous penaly corner and some really skilled people over the ball, so we’ll have a great week of preperation for them.”
