#1 Iowa Field Hockey upset by #11 Buckeyes

The matchup between the top ranked Iowa Field Hockey team and the 11th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday afternoon lived up to the billing. It was a hard fought game with momentum shifts going in both directions during the second half, but in the end, it was the Buckeyes that came away with the 2-1 upset victory at Grant Field. After losing eight in a row in the series, Ohio State has won back-to-back against the Hawkeyes for the first time since 2009 and 2010.

Despite it being a matchup between the top two goal scoring teams in the country, it was quite the defensive battle in the first half. The opening quarter was especially quiet, as neither team recorded a shot. The Buckeyes earned a penalty corner with under two minutes in the first, but did not register a shot attempt.

The second quarter had more action, but it came on the Ohio State end of the field. The Buckeyes had a couple of penalty corner opportunities and a couple of dangerous balls in front of the goal, but could not convert. Iowa GK Mia Magnotta came up with a couple of saves to keep the game scoreless. The Hawkeyes got their first dangerous chance in the 28th minute. Forward Miranda Jackson ran with the ball on her stick for about 40 yards, before sending a shot high over the top of the goal.

In the closing seconds of the first half, OSU forward Makenna Webster received a long pass and made one last attack into the scoring circle. She was able to earn a penalty corner with three seconds remaining in the half. On the ensuing corner attempt, Marie Anne Krebs took the insert, passed it off to Sarah Richards, who found Makenna Webster on the short side and she scored her 14th goal of the season to give the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead. After nearly making it to halftime in a scoreless tie, the goal was a back breaker for the Iowa defense.

“Backbreaking is the perfect word for it,” said head coach Lisa Cellucci. “Time and game management was poor in that moment for us and that was just unfortunate momentum going into the break.”

As the second half got underway, the Hawkeyes found themselves trailing for the first time since the second half against North Carolina during the opening weekend. After just two shots and one penalty corner over the first 37 minutes of the contest, Iowa finally broke through in the 38th minute. Defender Lieve Schalk had the ball on her stick for nearly 20 seconds and worked her way past three OSU defenders to get into the circle. Schalk fired a shot in the direction of the goal and Dionne van Aalsum was able to redirect it past OSU GK Abby Danson to tie the game up at one goal apiece. It was the 22nd goal of the season for van Aalsum, but the opportunity was created and set up by Schalk, who was credited with her seventh assist of the season.

𝘿𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚 𝙫𝙖𝙣 𝘼𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙪𝙢 sends it in 😎

No. 1 Iowa 1, No. 11 Ohio State 1 #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/L0dAYBhlt2

— Iowa Field Hockey (@iowafieldhockey) September 29, 2023

“Great play. Lieve eliminated a few player and gave a great pass to Dionne. Really good finish from her, so really textbook, right around the goal mouth,” said Cellucci.

Over the next couple of minutes, the momentum underwent a change and flipped in favor of the Hawkeyes. They earned a couple of penalty corners, but a pair of shots attempts from Dionne van Aalsum, including one that went into the goal, were above the allowed height for a penalty corner. Soon after, the Buckeyes moved it down the field and earned their own corner opportunity. The initial shot from Claudia Thomas was saved by Mia Magnotta, however, when Lieve Schalk attempted to clear the ball out of the circle, it caromed off of Milly Short’s foot and bounced in front of the goal. The unlucky break went the way of Ohio State, as freshman Brenna Bough was able to score off of the deflection to give the Buckeyes a 2-1 lead.

After review, this penalty corner goal counts for the #Buckeyes!

Ohio State back on top, 2-1. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/tgZwByMIFo

— Ohio State Field Hockey (@OhioStateFH) September 29, 2023

“We really still believed that we were going to be able to put them under some pressure and draw some more offensive opportunities,” said Cellucci. “We were just very disconnected and our lack of ability to join the play really hurt us.”

As the game continued into the fourth quarter, the clock became the enemy of the Hawkeyes. Trailing by a goal, the chances were not flowing for the Iowa offense. It was a mix of several factors. Lisa Cellucci called the Buckeyes “one of the fastest teams in the country” and that showed, as they were able to pressure, force turnovers and flip the field to keep Iowa away from scoring opportunities. The Hawkeyes also had an inordinate amount of mishandles on passes, while for the first time all season depth looked like an issue, with two starters out due to injury.

“I think we just had some fundamental mistakes. When it’s hotter, the turf is a little bouncier. That was part of it (the misplays), but we should have been prepared for that,” said Cellucci. “We started to press and stress and that led to some unfortunate mistakes.”

“We’re not going to use it as an excuse because we have what we have, but Harper Dunne is one of our most physical and fastest players on the field, so that hurt us. We have to find a way with what we have and I know we can do that. We just have to have a much better performance top to bottom.”

Then in the 59th minute, the Hawkeyes nearly got a game-tying goal that would have certainly sent the Grant Field crowd into a frenzy. With GK Mia Magnotta on the bench, Iowa was up an attacker and got a golden opportunity. Miranda Jackson got the ball to Dionne van Aalsum at the top of the circle and she swept one towards the goal, but it went just inches wide of the goal.

“We needed more of that, more often,” said Cellucci. “We just didn’t put Ohio State under enough pressure.”

Ohio State held on for the final 1:50 and pulled off the upset in Iowa City. The Buckeye defense allowed the Hawkeyes top scoring offense in the country to get just eight total shots for the game. After allowing 20 shots on Friday against Northwestern, the OSU defense showed up and looked like the one that held #5 Louisville to just three shots earlier in the year.

“They just played to their plan, they were connected, they moved hard and they worked their feet. They played very basic, simple team defense and we unfortunately were really disconnected offensively. What let us down was our inability and unwillingness to join the play.”

In the grand scheme of things, a loss to the #11 team in the country does not mean a whole lot. The odds that the Hawkeyes were going to put together an undefeated regular season were, realistically, not very high. The goals of a Big Ten Title, a Final Four and a national championship are not changed by a single loss. However, last season, when Iowa dropped their first game of the year, it was the first of six losses in their last nine games heading into the NCAA Tournament. That, is something that Lisa Cellucci and the Hawkeyes will be looking to avoid this season.

“Right now, we’ve got to get back to playing our standard and our style. That means being committed to moving the ball and staying connected defensively and we can do that. We’ve proven through nine games that we could do it.”

“We were out of sorts today, so the message is let’s go back to work tomorrow. We’re going to play a physical and much improved Michigan State team on Sunday, so we have to be better.”

Up Next, another home game for the Hawkeyes, as Michigan State comes to town on Sunday. The Spartans are 3-6 on the season and 1-2 in Big Ten play. They dropped their weekend opener, 6-0, at Northwestern this afternoon. The game is set to begin at 12:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.