It's crunch time for the fall Iowa sports and the Hawkeyes recorded some big wins over the weekend. Iowa field hockey had another opportunity for a statement win over the weekend and took full advantage, showing they're still one of the best in the country. Iowa soccer pushed themselves into postseason contention and multiple cross-country runners set career-bests in their final race before the conference championships.

Let's take a closer look.

#6 Iowa field hockey (12-2) got back on track last week, picking up a pair of wins. They started the weekend with a 2-0 win over Indiana (5-10) before traveling to Louisville (12-3) for a top-10 matchup against the #5 Cardinals in which the Hawkeyes came away with a massive 2-1 victory.

Against Indiana, the Hawkeyes controlled the game throughout, holding the Hoosiers to just eight shots, five of which came in the final period. Iowa put away a pair of goals in the 2nd quarter, one each by Milly Short and Hillary Cox. Short put the ball away after a penalty corner in the 17th minute and Cox followed up with a penalty stroke goal in the 23rd after Dionne van Aalsum drew the penalty.

It was an excellent get-right game for the Hawkeyes, who fell to Northwestern last week, and a solid effort in a game with trap-game potential. The Hawks took care of business and turned their focus to the week's big matchup against #5 Louisville.

Iowa went with a tried and true formula to start the game. The Hawks put a ton of pressure on the Cardinals early and capitalized when Dionne van Aalsum gave Iowa the early lead with a 7th-minute unassisted goal. The two teams played to a stalemate for the rest of the first half, with each team generating two penalty corners and three shots in the 2nd quarter. Iowa's defense stood tall and carried the 1-0 lead into halftime.

The Cardinals turned up the pressure in the 3rd quarter with six shots and three penalty corners, while the Hawks were unable to put any shots up on the Louisville end. Again, the Iowa defense held firm. Mia Magnotta notched three saves in the period and the Hawks held their 1-0 into the 4th.

The Hawks were able to find some footing in the offensive third in the 4th quarter and after earning a penalty corner in the 56th minute, van Aalsum put away a huge insurance goal to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Louisville found a consolation goal with 10 seconds left in the game, but the Hawkeyes came away with a huge victory.

The game followed a similar script to Iowa's other recent top matchups but the Hawks were able to punch back against some of the pressure from their opponents on Sunday in a way that they struggled to against Ohio State and Northwestern.

The Hawkeyes clearly knew they couldn't come out flat as they had against their recent ranked foes and showed up from the jump with an early goal. From there, Iowa's defense again absorbed the offensive onslaught, but instead of being pinned back until the defense couldn't hold on any longer, the Hawks regrouped at the end of the 3rd period and responded with an insurance goal.

The win propelled Iowa back into the top-5 in the national rankings, at #5 overall.

Dainne van Aalsum now has 25 goals on the year, three short of the freshman record at Iowa, and the team has allowed just nine goals in their 14 games. Van Aalsum also earned her 3rd Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week award for her outstanding performance.

The Hawkeyes will battle Maryland (12-3) (10/20, 4:00, BTN+) and Penn State (7-6) (10/22, 11:00) next week in a pair of road matches.

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Iowa soccer split a pair of matches last week, losing a heartbreaker 2-1 to Northwestern (8-4-3) on Thursday before rebounding to win big, 5-0, over Maryland (3-8-5).

Against Northwestern, the Hawkeyes fell behind in the 18th minute when the Wildcats scored off a free kick. Iowa wasn't behind for long, as Maggie Johnston put home a screamer in the 33rd minute to draw the Hawkeyes equal.

The match remained tied into the 2nd half until Northwestern pulled ahead in the 64th minute. Iowa had a pair of great opportunities to get a draw in the last few minutes of the game, with the ball bouncing loose in the box, but the Hawks couldn't find the equalizer and fell 2-1.

The Hawks will feel like they left points on the table against the Wildcats and every point matters as they try to earn a spot in the Big Ten conference tournament. It was encouraging to see Iowa bounce back Sunday and pile on the goals as the Hawkeyes took down Maryland 5-0. Elle Otto put the Hawkeyes ahead in the 3rd minute after she was played behind on the Terps defense with a sharp through ball.

Iowa wasn't content to sit back and nurse their goal advantage, adding another on a free kick in the 20th minute and a third off a corner in the 35th. The Hawks didn't take their foot off the gas in the 2nd half, adding a penalty goal from Josie Durr in the 54th minute and another laser from long range in the 80th minute from Sofia Bush.

While the Hawkeyes are a defensive-minded team, they don't like to sit back and invite pressure. Instead, they want to press and take the game to their opponents, regaining possession and controlling the game through the midfield.

When the game plan works at its best, it turns into set pieces and transition goals. We've seen the Hawks take advantage of both of those throughout the season, putting away multiple goals off of free kicks and corners, and over the past few weeks, they've shown a knack for putting away long shots from outside the box.

The Hawks feel like they're better than their record shows in the conference, but the conference schedule is so short that the Hawks have no room for error over the last two games if they want a shot at the conference tournament. The Hawks have 11 points in conference, which puts them in 7th place, one point clear of the 8th and 9th place teams. The top eight teams in the league qualify for the Big Ten conference tournament.

Iowa has just two games remaining in the regular season, a Thursday matchup at Michigan, who is one point behind the Hawkeyes in the standings (7-4-3) (7:00, BTN+), and the season finale Sunday at Michigan State, who sit 4th in the standings (10-3-3) (1:00, BTN+).

Iowa volleyball (8-12) lost both of their matches last week, falling in straight sets to Penn State (13-4) and 3-1 to Michigan State (12-7).

Against the Nittany Lions, the Hawkeyes struggled to keep pace with the potent Penn State attack. Delaney McSweeney notched six kills and Nataly Moravec chipped in six of her own, but the Hawks fell in three straight sets, 25-14, 25-18, 25-14.

The Hawkeyes got off to a better start on Saturday against the Spartans, taking set one 25-23. MSU bounced back with a convincing 25-13 win in set two and won a third set nailbiter 30-28. Iowa did what it could to push the game to a decisive 5th set, but Michigan State pulled away late to take the 4th set 25-23. Caitlan Buettner put up 12 kills in the match including her 1,000th career kill and Sydney Dennis added 15 digs.

The Hawkeyes had a shot at their first conference win against the Spartans and while they avoided giving up the big runs that have plagued them against some of the top teams in the Big Ten, they weren't able to put enough runs of their own together to pull away. They played three of the four sets down to the final few points, but the ball didn't bounce the Hawkeyes' way and they fell to 0-8 in the Big Ten.

Iowa will have another shot at Penn State on Friday (6:00, BTN+) and then will travel to take on Maryland (13-7) on Saturday (6:00, BTN+).

The Hawkeye cross-country teams ran in the Bradley Pink Classic last weekend, where both teams finished 11th out of 28 teams. The top finisher for the Women's team was Amber Aesoph, who set a personal best with a 21:49.3 in the 6,000m race, good for 30th. Alli Bookin-Nosbisch (22:00.7) and Abby Ryan (22:07.4) each set personal bests as well in the race, finishing 43rd and 53rd respectively.

On the men's side, the Hawkeyes were led by Jack Pendergrast, who finished the 8,000m race in 25:04.4. The Hawks also got a career-best run from Aiden King who finished in 60th with a 25:18.0.

Iowa will have a week off before taking part in the Big Ten Championships on October 27th.