Iowa Soccer shuts out #24 Washington in Iowa City

Just seven days ago, the Iowa Women’s Soccer team suffered their first defeat of the season. A veteran led group faced their first real bit of adversity and were challenged to rebound quickly with back-to-back ranked opponents to come. The Hawkeyes met the challenge head on, defeating 15th-ranked Rutgers on Sunday, and on Thursday night, they picked up a 1-0 shutout win over 24th-ranked Washington. Iowa is now 12-1-3 on the season and 7-1-1 in Big Ten play.

“We took a bit of a reality check,” said head coach Dave Dilanni. “We had every excuse to not do well at Rutgers, but our mentality was special out there, and then the soccer was very good. To turn around and do the same thing again today, this was another example that we’re pretty mature.”

The expectation coming into the night was a low-scoring match, with both sides ranking inside the top 15 in the country in goals allowed per game. Over the opening 30 minutes, Washington struggled to get sustained stretches of possession in their offensive half, meanwhile, the Hawkeyes got their first dangerous attack just after the half an hour mark.

“I thought the game played out almost to plan, in terms of what we thought the scout was going to be,” said Dilanni. “Washington doesn’t give up very many goals, pretty stingy like us, in fact, we looked a lot alike in how we wanted to play.”

In the 34th minute, Iowa got their first dangerous look off the foot of Elle Otto, but Washington GK Mia Hamant was able to punch it over top of the goal for a corner kick. It took a couple of tries, but finally, on their third corner kick, in the 36th minute, the Hawkeyes converted.

Lauren Geczik swung a ball into the box, and it was punched out by GK Mia Hamant. The ball took one hop towards the edge of the box and Berit Parten hit a wonderful strike into the top left corner of the goal to make it 1-0 Hawkeyes. Her seventh goal of the season was by far the best of the freshman’s young career.

“My job is to just stand at the top of the box. It’s hard to take two touches on that one, so I just hit one touch,” said Parten. “You practice those types of balls all the time. I just kind of went for it.”

“What a special goal,” said Dilanni. “We miss all these other chances, and then all of the sudden you get a Sportscenter kind of goal and that’s who she is…most people would take it down and want another touch.”

That's tough 😏

35:31 | No. 14 Iowa 1, No. 24 Washington 0#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/kJuhNGwJuD

— Hawkeye Soccer (@HawkeyeSoccer) October 18, 2024

Late in the half, Iowa controlled possession of the ball and put a lot of pressure on the back line of the Washington defense. The Hawkeyes outshot the Huskies 9-2 in the first half and although they only put one goal on the board, it forced Washington to defend for a long stretch. Defending for long stretches tests depth and conditioning late in the season.

“We’re all doing a lot of traveling this late in the year, and so I think the more that we could make them have to defend us and chase the game, (the better), said Dilanni. “I thought our subs at the end of the first half did a great job, and maybe I could have used a bit more subbing in the second half. The more we can use subs and create depth, the better we’re going to be.”

In the second half, Washington wasn’t able to get many chances in the normal run of play, but were able to set up forward Ioanna Papatheodorou with a pair of dangerous free kick opportunities. The Hawkeyes were able to hold Papatheodorou off the board in the 59th and 71st minute, but the chances still were scary moments for the defense.

“She’s the best free kick taker in the conference, so that was dangerous and scary,” said Dilanni. “You bend, you don’t break, and you’re absorbed. This is a good league, so people are going to have some success at times.”

“There were moments where I thought we were a little loose with the ball, and we knew that they weren’t going to play through us. It was going to come out of transition and that’s what I thought the second half looked like at times. But the later you get into the season, you have to be comfortable winning 1-0. I thought that we did a good job of buckling down right at the end.”

Washington threw some balls forward in the late stages of the game, but were unable to find an equalizer. The Hawkeyes closed out the final minutes to secure their 12th win of the season. They outshot the Huskies 11-7, holding them to just two shots on goal and one corner kick.

The group’s ability to bounce back off of a tough defeat and secure back-to-back ranked wins is the reason why the Hawkeyes are in the midst of their best season in program history. Berit Parten says it has to do with the mindset of the team.

“It’s just our mentality to keep growing and keep wanting more. We’re never satisfied. That loss (to Wisconsin) was really frustrating, but we knew that Rutgers was going to be a new game, and this was going to be a new game, and we just had to come out punching. Thankfully we got it done for a full 90, but we’re going to keep going.”

“(The veterans) keep everyone in check and keep us focused on our goal. Keep us hungry for more and never be satisfied and I think that’s really helped us get to where we are.”

Up Next: The Hawkeyes will host the Oregon Ducks on Sunday at the UI Soccer Complex. Kickoff is set for 1:00pm CT on BTN+.