Olympic Spotlight: Iowa Field Hockey Ranked #1

It was a near-perfect week for Iowa sports last week. The Hawks scored victories in field hockey, cross country, soccer, and volleyball last week, not to mention football's opening week win.

There's a ton to cover so let's jump right in.

Iowa field hockey (4-0) started the season red hot with a pair wins over ranked opponents, including a win over then #1 North Carolina. Last week, the Hawkeyes put together another perfect weekend, beating Fairfield (2-1) and #19 Albany (1-2) with matching 3-0 wins. Their 4-0 start earned them the #1 spot in this week's NFHCA poll, just the second time in program history that the Hawkeyes have held the top spot in the rankings.

The Hawks put together a complete team performance against Fairfield, scoring sixteen seconds into the game on an Annika Herbine shot before freshman Dionne van Aalsum put away two more goals, one each in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. The Hawks held the Stags to just two shots, neither of which was on goal, in a dominating wire-to-wire win.

Sunday's match against #19 Albany was a step up in competition, but the results were more of the same. Van Aalsum again scored two goals, this time netting both within within the game's first five minutes. Hillary Cox added an insurance goal with a 58th-minute penalty goal. Iowa's defense fought off five penalty corners and goalie Mia Magnotta made three saves to help preserve the shutout.

The Hawkeyes look every bit as talented as they have over the past few years, if not more so. The Hawks have long been a smothering defensive team and that has continued early in their 2023 campaign, as the group has already notched three shutouts.

The addition of van Aalsum on the offensive side has added an entirely new dimension to his team. The freshman phenom has now scored multiple goals in every game of her college career. Iowa was always a talented group, but it's looking like they may have a superstar on the offensive side this year, to go along with their strong depth across the field.

The team is playing with confidence and looks as though they expect to win every time they step on the pitch and the rest of the country is taking notice. The top-ranked Hawkeyes will look to continue their perfect start to the year when they take on Central Michigan (1-2) this Friday (3 PM CT, BTN+).

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Iowa cross country hosted the Hawkeye Invitational last Friday and both the men's and women's teams put in strong performances in their season-opening competition. The women's team finished 2nd in the event, with five Hawkeyes posting top-10 times in the 4K. Amber Aesoph paced the Hawks, finishing 3rd in 14:19.3, while Jalyssa Blazek (14.34.6), Brooke Mckee (14.35.5), Aleah Tenpas (14.36.0), and Clare Kelly (14.40.0) claimed the 7th-10th spots.

It was a strong start for the women's team, putting together a well-balanced performance that bodes well for the group's full-season prospects. These "individual" sports are a test of team depth more than anything so seeing a well-rounded performance from the group so early in the year is a great sign. Four other Iowa women set collegiate bests in the race as well.

The men's team had an even more explosive start to the season, as junior Max Murphy rewrote the record books with his race-winning 6K time (17.57.3). Murphy crushed the previous school record by almost 13 seconds in an absolutely dominant performance.

Four other Hawkeyes, Hayden Kuhn (2nd all-time), Miles Sheppard (3rd), Will Ryan (7th), and Ian Geisler (8th), posted top-10 times in school history at the meet as the Hawks ran away with the team title by almost 30 points.

It was a huge performance out of the gate for the men's team, who look like one of the deepest teams the program has had in years. The 6K is obviously a different animal than the 8K and 10K that the team will compete in as the season continues, but the Hawks made a loud statement in their opening meet. All six scoring Hawkeyes were within the top 13 and the Hawkeye finishers had the smallest spread (20.3 seconds) of any team at the event.

The teams will next compete in the Badger Classic on September 9th. The event will feature a 5K race for the women and an 8K race for the men, a nice test after last week's shorter distance runs.

Iowa soccer (5-0) put together a perfect week of their own last week, picking up wins over Mississippi State (4-1-1) and Southeast Missouri State (2-2-1). The Hawks traveled to Mississippi to take on the Bulldogs Thursday and came away with a 1-0 win. Shae Doherty scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the 8th minute of the match and from there, it was a defensive stalemate. Macy Enneking saved all five of Mississippi State's shots to earn the Hawkeyes' third shutout of the season.

The Hawks closed out the weekend with a decisive 4-0 win over Southeast Missouri State. Sofia Bush scored in the opening minute for the Hawkeyes, who then added three more goals in the second half, all while holding the Redhawks without a shot.

It was a complete performance for the team on Senior Day, as they notched their fourth shutout and fifth win overall on the year. The Hawks have shown they can win on the back of their defense and by overpowering the opposition on offense. They're in great form and will look to keep up the strong play next week against Virginia (5-0-1) and George Mason (0-6).

Iowa volleyball (4-2) won all three of their matches at the FryFest Invitational over the weekend, beating Middle Tennessee State (2-3) in straight sets, overcoming Kent State (1-5) in five sets, and finishing the weekend strong with a straight set win over South Dakota State (1-5). It was exactly what you wanted to see as a Hawkeye fan in the three matches, with the Hawks taking care of business against mid-major competition and overcoming adversity in a tight match against Kent State.

Against Middle Tennessee, the Hawkeyes battled to pull out a 29-27 set one win before cruising to 25-18 and 25-11 set wins to close the match. Sydney Dennis dug 17 balls and Caitlin Buettner matched her with 17 kills. I talked last week about wanting to see the Hawkeyes put together full match performances and Friday's game was exactly what I had in mind. The Hawkeyes lulled for a moment in the first set, but fought back to take the set and then kept their foot on the gas to close out the match.

Saturday was a similar story played out on a longer scale. The Hawks dropped a hard-fought first set 22-25 but bounced back to claim set two 25-23. When the Golden Flashes punched back again, taking set three 22-25, Iowa again responded, handily taking set four 25-18 and putting together a seven-point run in the decisive fifth set to claim the set and the match 15-7.

Nataly Moravec notched 20 kills, a career-high, in the match. Iowa will no doubt feel like they left some points on the table during the match, but they showed composure to bounce back from being a set down two separate times during the match and eventually put it all together to win the final two sets convincingly.

Sunday's match against South Dakota State was another strong performance from the Hawkeyes. Buettner again put up 17 kills, while Dennis racked up 16 more digs in a 3-0 victory. The Hawks still have pieces to work on, but it's also easier to point out room for improvement after a win. Iowa's next match is scheduled for Wednesday, September 6 when they will take on Iowa State (5-0) at 6:00 p.m CT (BTN+)

Three Hawkeye golfers were named to the Big Ten's Women's Golfers to Watch list last week as the Hawks prepare to open the season in two weeks. Sophomores Madison Dabagia and Shannyn Vogler and freshman Xiemena Benites were each named to the list by Big Ten officials Thursday. It was Dabagia and Vogler's second season on the watchlist as both will look to improve on strong freshman campaigns.

Vogler paced the team with a 74.70 scoring average while Dabagia earned two top 20 finishes and one top 10 finish last season. Benites joins the team from Peru where she finished second at the South American Pre-Juvenil Championship. The Hawks will tee off on September 17th as part of the Badger Invitational.