The Iowa Field Hockey team had this game circled on the calendar since the day the schedule was released. Last year, Northwestern ended Iowa’s undefeated season and knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament. Today the Hawkeyes got pay back for both of those losses and toppled the top ranked Wildcats on their home turf.

“We told the girls we’re going to celebrate this, but as soon as we wake up tomorrow morning, we’re focused on Ball State,” said Head Coach Lisa Cellucci. That celebration included taking a dip into the cold Lake Michigan waters.

Northwestern out-shot Iowa 16-3, but the defense stepped up in the second half with a 2-0 lead and held the ‘Cats to just two shots and one penalty corner over the final 30 minutes.

Alex Wesneski opened the scoring in the 7th minute with her 8th goal of the season. Esme Gibson stole a Northwestern pass and took attacked forward with it before passing it off to Wesneski for the goal. The goal put Northwestern on their heels early in the match.

“It was awesome. Score early and start off fast is always the goal,” said Wesneski. “Great start and we kept our foot on the gas the rest of the game.”

“We were thinking we were going to have to hold them off and not break (defensively) in the first quarter, so to be able to go up 1-0, I think it gave us an extra surge of confidence,” said Cellucci.

Iowa added to their lead in the 24th minute, and it was Wesneski again. She took a feed from Lokke Stribos, turned and ripped a shot through traffic in the circle and past goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz for her second goal of the game.”

“First of all, great ball from Lokke. It’s always a pleasure to be paired up with her,” said Wesneski. “I knew if I spun right and just put anything on goal, you never know what’s going to happen. Just happy it went in.”

At the half, Northwestern had 14 shots, seven shots on goal and four penalty corner opportunities, but zero goals to show for it. From that point on, the Iowa defense locked in and made sure that today was not a repeat of earlier in the year against North Carolina.

“Our unit defense was outstanding,” said Cellucci. “We really did a great job running with them and then just having layers. That was the key, layers to our defense.”

The biggest threat on offense for Northwestern coming into the game was forward Bente Baekers. Despite leading the nation in goals with 13, Hawkeyes held her off the score sheet and she got just two shots on goal.

“I thought they did a great job (defending her), said Cellucci. “Knew where she was every time and we tackled her really well. The key was running with her.”

Senior goalkeeper Grace McGuire was her normal self in goal, as she saved all nine shots that Northwestern put on goal. Wildcats’ goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz did not make a save on either shot on goal she faced. That was the difference.

With the win, the Hawkeyes move to 7-1 on the season and are in line to make a surge into the top 3 in the new rankings come Tuesday. Before that, Iowa must take care of business on Sunday, as they travel to Muncie for a match-up against Ball State. The game is at 11:00am, but will not be streamed anywhere.