It was a beautiful day for a non-conference field hockey match-up in Evanston, however, the Hawkeyes offensive struggles continued and for the second time in a week they lost to Michigan. The Wolverines got a goal with under five minutes to play to lift them to the 1-0 victory. Iowa has now gone 187:39 without a goal and have been shutout in three straight games for the first time in program history.

“I thought the first half, we stuck to the plan a lot more. Gave us some opportunities offensively to draw some corners and catch them a little bit in transition,” said Head Coach Lisa Cellucci. “Then in the second half, we just flat out didn’t make the changes that we talked about, which is really disappointing.”

The first went much better than last week’s 2-0 loss against Michigan. Iowa was able to gain more possession and held the Wolverines to just two shots on goal in the first half. Conversely, the Hawkeyes put three shots on goal on three penalty corner chances, but the ball just didn’t break Iowa’s way. They are now just 1/27 over the last seven games on penalty corners.

“The first save (by Anna Spieker) was fantastic, same with the third penalty corner. I don’t know how it didn’t go in,” said Cellucci. “We had some really good looks, which we were hoping to have, and it was good execution, just needs to go in the goal.”

In the second half, things reverted back to the way they were in the first matchup last Sunday. The Wolverines controlled possession and put tons of pressure on the Iowa defense. Michigan outshot Iowa 14-0 in the final 30 minutes and had four penalty corner chances to Iowa’s zero.

“I actually thought our back three, Lokke, Anthe, Harper and Grace were outstanding to withstand what they did (in the second half),” said Cellucci. “It was really out midfield transition. When we did come up with the ball, it’s the first pass priority. We’re losing possession too easily and then constantly putting ourselves in transition.”

The Wolverines finally cracked through the Iowa defense on their eighth penalty corner of the game in the 56th minute. Kathyrn Peterson inserted it to Nina Apoola, who set up Pilar Oliveros for a shot. The shot by Oliveros went untouched past everyone in the circle and into the goal to give Michigan a 1-0 lead. The Hawkeyes pulled goalkeeper Grace McGuire for the final 4:21, but the offense could not get anything going even with the extra attacker.

“Our backs are to the wall right now. We needed that one to have some control in the postseason. We’re going to play a really gritty Michigan State team next Friday, who’s going to tackle hard, run really hard and they have nothing to lose because their season’s over (after Friday).”

With the loss, the Hawkeyes fall to 10-6 on the season and 3-4 in Big Ten play. They are currently in sixth place in the Big Ten, which puts them in line to face Michigan in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Columbus. As for the NCAA Tournament, things are not yet locked up for a team that seemed to be destined for a host spot at the beginning of the year.

“I thought if we had won this game, we would have had a spot just because of some things that have happened,” said Coach Cellucci. “There are bids to be had. I think we do have a decent resume, but we needed this game.”

Coming into the weekend, the Hawkeyes were at #8 in the RPI and at the beginning of the day today they sat at #11 in the KPI. They figure to be right in the middle of the bubble come tomorrow when both rating systems are updated.

Iowa finishes up the regular season on Friday at Grant Field, as they take on the Michigan State Spartans for Senior Night. The game is at 4:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.