Two games, two overtime finishes
The beginning of the Iowa Field Hockey season has been both a thrilling and a stressful one with both games over the weekend going to a sudden victory finish. The Hawkeyes picked up the win against Wake Forest on Saturday, but this afternoon, it was the second ranked North Carolina Tar Heels that came out victorious in overtime.
Iowa got off to a scorching start in the first half, as the converted two shots into two goals against the UNC defense and built a 2-0 lead before the 18th minute of the game. Alex Wesneski got the Hawkeyes on the board in the 4th minute with an impressive redirect of a Lokke Stribos pass to beat UNC goalie Kylie Walbert.
Then in the 17th minute, Sofie Stribos found some open space in the Heels defense and fired a shot past Walbert to give the Hawkeyes a 2-0 lead and all of the momentum. However, from that point on, North Carolina’s offense flexed their muscle and put constant pressure against the Iowa defense. Goalie Grace McGuire was able to make some impressive saves to keep the Tar Heels off the board and Iowa went into the half with a 2-0 lead, despite being outshot 10-2.
In the second half, UNC continued to push on offense, while the Hawkeyes struggled to get the ball out of their own half of the field. Lisa Slinkert got the Heels on the board in the 42nd minute after she scored her first goal of the season off of a pass from Meredith Sholder. Then in the fourth quarter, UNC was able to turn their offensive pressure into penalty corner chances. In the 53rd minute, Seitske Bruning took advantage of the teams fourth penalty corner of the quarter and put one past Grace McGuire to tie the game.
The game went into overtime and in the 64th minute, freshman Ashley Sessa had a long distance shot saved, but four-time All-American Erin Matson gathered the rebound and was able to put it past McGuire to complete the comeback. North Carolina dominated possession all afternoon and outshot the Hawkeyes 22-2, including 14-2 in shots on goal. The penalty corner chances were 7-0 in favor of the Tar Heels. Despite the numbers, Coach Lisa Cellucci was pleased with the overall performance
“We executed the game plan to perfection today. I am so proud of the resilience and grit that the team played with. We showed what it looks like to play our standard of Iowa field hockey.”
The Hawkeyes will return to Iowa City for five straight games at Grant Field, starting with Boston University for the home opener on Friday. The game is set to start at 3:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.
