IOWA CITY, Iowa --The 22nd ranked University of Iowa field hockey team fell to No. 9 Northwestern, 5-4, in overtime on Friday.
How It Happened
The Wildcats jumped out to a two goal lead early in the first half scoring in the eighth and ninth minutes. The Hawkeyes responded in the 27th minute when Maddy Murphy found the back of the cage. Iowa ran a penalty corner play that set up Murphy right on the door step, making the score 2-1. The Hawkeyes tied the score in the 32nd minute. Sophomore Sophie Sunderland deflected in Katie Birch’s penalty corner shot to tie the match at 2-2.
Northwestern again jumped out to a two goal lead in the second half. Puck Petenga scored a pair of penalty corner goals in the 36th and 38th minutes giving the Wildcats a 4-2 lead. Iowa responded again, scoring on two penalty corners. Freshman Ellie Holley tipped in Lucie Daman shot to make it a one-goal match in the 50th minute, and Murphy tipped in Birch’s shot in the 68th minute to tie the match at 4-4.
The match remained tied after 70 minutes and went into overtime. Northwestern scored in the 75th minute for the walk-off goal. The Wildcats are now 11-4 on the season.
Quoting Head Coach Lisa Cellucci
“We showed great resiliency to get ourselves back in the match and into overtime. We needed a little bit better game management in the beginning of each half, and had we done that we wouldn’t have had to spend so much energy getting back into the match. Northwestern is an outstanding team. We think we are an understanding team, we just need to get on the right side of things. Our focus for Michigan is going to be our team defensive and our decision making.”
Notables
· Senior goalkeeper Katie Jones made eight saves in the match.
· Holley notched her first career goal as a Hawkeye.
· The Hawkeyes were four for five on penalty corners.
· Daman, Birch, and Melissa Progar each had two assists in the game.
· Eight of Iowa’s nine losses have come to top-25 opponents.
· The Hawkeyes have lost six matches by one goal.
Up Next
The Hawkeyes return to Grant Field on Sunday when they face No. 3 Michigan at noon (CT). The match will be streamed on BTN Plus.