Head Coach Lisa Cellucci was disappointed with her team’s offensive performance early in the game on Friday against Boston University, as it took them until the 22nd minute to get on the board. Today, her team responded with four goals before the 22-minute mark and the Hawkeyes coasted to a 6-0 victory over the Saint Louis Billikens.

“It was a better start today; we had our foot on the gas from the beginning. We made it a lot easier for ourselves with passing outside the line and how we build the ball,” said Cellucci. “We could have made it even more open today if we had made some simple changes and filling the far post. We’ll take it as the goals are starting to fall now.”

The win marks 19 in a row in the series against Saint Louis dating back to 1981, while Iowa has held the Billikens scoreless in the last ten matchups dating back to 1992.

The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute on a goal from Annika Herbine. Ciara Smith played the ball into the scoring circle past a Billiken defender and passed it to Herbine, who directed it into the goal for her third of the season.

Then in the 14th minute, the Hawkeyes took advantage of a penalty corner opportunity and Anthe Nijziel slapped a shot past Saint Louis goalie Sasha Sander to make it 2-0. Iowa didn’t wait long to strike again, as Alex Wesneski got behind the goalkeeper and Esme Gibson found her for an easy tap in goal to make it 3-0 Hawkeyes. The two goals were separated by just 38 seconds.

Iowa added to their lead early in the second quarter with another goal off of a penalty corner. Laura Drees and Leah Zellner set it up and found Ciara Smith in front of the goal and she converted it for her first goal of the season. The 18th minute goal made it 4-0 and Iowa carried that lead into the halftime break.

Ciara Smith wasn’t done on the day and neither were the Hawkeyes with penalty corners. In the 44th minute, Smith redirected a Lokke Stribos shot into the back of the net for her second goal of the game, and it pushed the lead to 5-0.

After turning in several good scoreless performances, last year’s leading scorer was able to find the back of the net for her first goals of the season.

“Sometimes you have to get your feet wet (to start scoring) and Ciara had some good corner executions on the redirects, so that was fantastic,” said Coach Cellucci.

Alex Wesneski added another goal in the 47th minute to make it six goals in four games for her on the year and it was the exclamation point on the game, as the Hawkeyes picked up the 6-0 victory. Iowa outshot the Billikens 25-4 and held a 15-1 advantage in shots on goal. They were sharp on penalty corner opportunities, scoring on four of their eight chances.

“We’re going to be coming into the level of play increase with two great teams coming next weekend and Big Ten play starting,” said Cellucci. “We need to have this (performance) be more common place in getting more shots, more corners and scoring opportunities.”

While it was a mostly quiet day on the defensive half of the field for Iowa, it was a big day for redshirt freshman goalkeeper Mia Magnotta, as she got her first action as a Hawkeye in the second half of the game. Magnotta faced a couple penalty corners in the fourth quarter and made the first save of her career in the 52nd minute to keep the shutout intact.

“We want to continue to get her experience because she’s going to be the future for us when Grace graduates,” said Cellucci. “Any other team in the country and she’d be the starting goalkeeper. She is fantastic and every day presses us, so we’re going to continue to try to give her more and more time.”

“I was nervous, but I think more excited,” said Magnotta on stepping into goal for her first game action. “I have a good team that was cheering me on and coaches that have confidence in me.”

The Hawkeyes will be back in action next weekend, as they host a pair of games at Grant Field. They open the weekend on Friday against the Providence Friars at 2:00pm and wrap things up with a game against #25 Massachusetts on Sunday at 1:00pm. Both games will be streamed on BTN+.