A look ahead at the 2024 Iowa Soccer team

The Iowa Women’s Soccer team has somewhat quietly been building itself up as a successful program in the Big Ten under head coach Dave Dilanni. The Hawkeyes have made the NCAA Tournament in three of the past five seasons, including Big Ten Tournament championships in 2020 and 2023. This past season, Iowa finished with a 13-5-4 overall record and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a win over #12 Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament Championship. The Hawkeyes hosted an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in program history and defeated Bucknell in the opening round. Their run fell short against Georgia in the second round, but they appeared in the final United Soccer Coaches Poll for the first time in program history (24th).

Coach Dilanni returns plenty of starting experience from last season and the team showed well against a tough spring schedule that included games against St Louis, Missouri, Notre Dame and Milwaukee. Three of those four teams appeared in last season’s NCAA Tournament. With just 55 days until the Hawkeyes season opener, we take a look ahead at what to expect from the team in 2024.

Departures

The Hawkeyes are set to return most of their starting lineup, but there are two major departures from last year’s team. Defender Sam Cary was a five-year starter for Iowa, appearing in 97 games over the course of her career. As a senior she was a Second Team All-Big Ten selection, Defensive Player of the Big Ten Tournament and helped Iowa set a program record with 13 shutouts in 22 games. Cary signed with Swedish pro club IFK Norrköping back in March.

The other big departure is midfielder Josie Durr. She spent six years with the Hawkeyes, appearing in 88 career games with 65 starts. Durr finished her career with 12 goals and four assists, including tying for the team lead with seven goals last season.

Returning players

Despite losing a couple of key players that played a part in much of program’s recent success, the Hawkeyes are set to return 82.6% of their starts, 75.0% of their goals scored and 82.8% of their minutes played from last season. That’s a lot of returning experience for a team that hosted an NCAA Tournament game.

Leading the group of returning players in the field is grad student forward Kelli McGroarty. She tied for the team lead with seven goals, while her four assists gave her a team-high 18 points. The Hawkeyes return five of six players that totaled multiple goals last season, including forward Elle Otto (5 gls, 3 ast), midfielder Kenzie Roling (3 gls, 5 ast) and Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection midfielder Sofia Bush (3 gls, 2 ast).

Defenders Millie Greer (1,935 mins), Maggie Johnston (1,777 mins) and Eva Pattison (1,316 mins) return to spearhead a defense that tied for third in the country with 13 shutouts and ranked 41st in goals allowed per game (.757). The loss of Sam Cary is substanial, but there is reason for optimism with everyone else returning. The good news is that the Hawkeyes return grad senior goalkeeper Macy Enneking. She started all 22 games last season and ranked third in the Big Ten in goals allowed per game (0.76) and fourth in save percentage (77.3%).

Transfer portal additions

Head Coach Dave Dilanni went into the transfer portal and did great work adding four experienced players to bolster the roster heading into this coming season. The four transfer additions have combined for 58 goals, 33 assists and 12,882 minutes played over the course of their careers.

The most notable addition was the signing of South Dakota State grad transfer forward Maya Hansen. A three-time First Team All-Summit League selection, Hansen was the 2022 Summit League Offensive Player of the Year and holds the Jackrabbits program record with 44 goals. She missed the majority of last season with a leg injury, but scored 11 goals for SDSU during the 2022 season.

The Hawkeyes also added Texas A&M grad transfer Lauren Geczik, Southern Miss junior Alexia Griffin and Dayton grad transfer Madison Wilson. For the Aggies Geczik appeared in 39 games with 29 starts and totaled 2,674 career minutes, including four goals and five assists. In two years for the Eagles, Griffin appeared in 34 games with 31 starts and logged 2,632 minutes. For the Flyers, Wilson logged 2,605 minutes over three seasons played, including nine goals and nine assists.

“We are very excited to add these great female student-athletes as members of our Iowa Soccer family. Each of them comes to Iowa with a great deal of playing experience at their former institutions, which will be a valuable addition to this year’s team in its drive for championships,” said head coach Dave Dilanni in a press release from the school.

A look at the 2024 schedule

The Hawkeyes will host the South Dakota Coyotes for a preseason exhibition at the UI Soccer Complex on August 7th prior to the beginning of the season. They will kick off the regular season at the Rumble in the Rockies multi-team event in Missoula, MT, where they will face Oregon State and Colorado College.

The biggest game on the non-conference slate is a trip to Austin to face Texas on August 25th. The Longhorns finished last season with a 17-5-2 record, including a run to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. They finished ranked 18th in the final poll.

Elsewhere in the non-conference, Iowa will host 2023 NCAA Tournament participant Florida Gulf Coast on August 29th, while Wake Forest (Sep 1) and Baylor (Sep 8) will visit Iowa City. The annual Cy-Hawk game is set for September 15th in Ames.

In Big Ten play, the Hawkeyes will face six teams that appeared in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Their Big Ten opener is set for September 12th in Iowa City against Nebraska. The Huskers were a five seed in last years tournament, making it all the way to the Elite Eight round.

The other games against NCAA Tournament participants include at Ohio State (Sep 19), vs Penn State (Sep 26), vs Indiana (Oct 6), vs Wisconsin (Oct 10) and at Rutgers (Oct 13). Iowa will close out the regular season on October 27th at Minnesota.

Final Thought

On paper, this Iowa team appears to have all of the pieces to make it back to the NCAA Tournament and possibly host a game for the second straight season. The Hawkeyes may have lucked out a bit with their schedule, as Iowa avoids three of the six other Big Ten teams that hosted an NCAA Tournament game last season. They also get five of their eight games against NCAA Tournament participants at the UI Soccer Complex.

The combination of returning talent and a good haul in the transfer portal gives Coach Dave Dilanni a team that can win any game on their schedule. This could very well be one of the most highly-anticipated seasons in program history.