The Iowa Field Hockey team knows the top ranked Northwestern Wildcats well. They faced them in a pair of exhibition matches before last season, twice during the actual season and then played them again before this season got underway. The familiarity doesn’t make the upcoming match-up in Evanston easier.

“It’s going to be first and foremost a great field hockey match and then just another great challenge for us,” said Head Coach Lisa Cellucci.

The fifth ranked Hawkeyes come into the game with a 6-1 record, with the lone loss coming against #2 North Carolina in the opening weekend. Top ranked Northwestern sits with an undefeated 8-0 record, including wins against #7 Princeton and #10 Virginia, as well as four other wins against ranked teams.

In their first five games, the Wildcats outscored their opponents 20-2 and while it has dipped to just 9-6 over the last three games, they are still averaging 3.63 goals per game on offense. The spearhead of that offensive attack is the nation’s leading goal scorer and All-American forward Bente Baekers.

“She’s really skilled, incredibly talented and understands the game of hockey really really well,” said senior goalkeeper Grace McGuire. “She works very efficiently, and she’s got a killer backhand…As much as we say force a low angle shot, with her it doesn’t matter. She can score from the baseline.”

Through eight games, Baekers has 13 goals, five assists and her 31 points are 36.5% of the teams total on year. She is also the team’s leading shooter, as her 50 shots account for 28.4% of the team’s total. The match-up against Baekers has some parallels to when the Hawkeyes faced North Carolina earlier in the year.

“It’s kind of like what we did against Erin Matson and North Carolina. We have to have layers to our defense, and we have to try to deny her the ball as best we can, especially when we’re in our defensive 25 (quarter),” said Coach Cellucci. “These guys are aware of that and in previous games, we’ve really frustrated Bente.

For Iowa, the gameplan going in is to make someone not named Bente Baekers beat them. While the ‘Cats have had eight other goalscorers, no one has more than four behind the 13 of Baekers.

“100% and they have other players that can beat you,” said Cellucci. “If she’s going to beat us; it’s going to be because they draw a penalty corner, and she scores that way. Our goal is to try to have somebody else do the scoring for them.”

Peyton Halsey (4 goals, 3 ast), Ana Medina Garcia (4 goals), Kayla Blas (1 goal, 7 ast) and Maddie Zimmer (2 goals) will all present their own unique challenges for the Iowa defense.

“They have some of the most savvy forwards in the country and they’re very quick as well,” said Grace McGuire. “Maddie Zimmer can tear down the field in like two seconds, so I think just not being overwhelmed by that and being caught off guard.”

Anthe Nijziel agreed, “They’re very fast. They get from their 25 to your 25 really quickly and their counters are very lethal, so that’s definitely one of their strengths.”

Northwestern averages 22 shots, 12.8 shots on goal, 8.3 penalty corners and 3.63 goals per game, so it will be a challenge for the Iowa defense, but Grace McGuire says it’s going to be a fun challenge.

“It’s going to be fun. I think it’s one of the best offenses against probably the best defense, so I think it should be a good time.”

Flipping the script to the other side of the field, the Wildcats are holding opponents to just 8.0 shots, 4.8 penalty corners and 1.00 goals per game. GK Annabel Skubisz has faced 30 shots this season and saved 22 for a 0.733 save pct. However, holding opponents to 30 shots on goal in eight games is a testament to the Northwestern defense as well.

“They’re really disciplined. Every team has strengths and weaknesses on defense,” said senior Esme Gibson. “We need to make sure that we can take advantage of those weaknesses, but we really need to respect every aspect of their play.”

Last year in two match-ups against the Wildcats, the Hawkeyes had 15 shots and nine penalty corners, but scored just one goal in 120 minutes of game play. This year, the focus will be to get as many scoring opportunities as possible and then converting on those opportunities.

“We’re not going to get many opportunities, so we need to take advantage of the ones we get,” said Esme Gibson. “Our building forward and the final 30 yards (is key). We do some great buildings, especially through the midfield, but our final pass into the circle and decision making, especially coming from the baseline is really going to need to up this week.”

For the Hawkeyes, one of their strengths is taking advantage of penalty corners. However, in a game like this they can’t expect to see 9-10 penalty corners like they did against UMass and Indiana. Instead, they may get 2-4 opportunities and taking advantage of those could be the difference in the contest.

“It’s definitely important even if the first shot doesn’t go in, to be ready for the rebounds,” said Anthe Nijziel. “Just keeping the ball in the circle and trying to get the best out of those opportunities we get.”

“We need to have execution down on point because we may only have 1, 2, 3 penalty corners and we have to be able to get something out of them,” said Coach Cellucci.

In the Hawkeyes last game against Indiana, they were able to force 10 penalty corners and they showed a number of different set plays out of those corners. It worked out well, as four of Iowa’s five goals came off penalty corner chances. It’s something that will carry over into Friday’s game.

“Definitely, we have a lot of options in our back pocket,” said Cellucci. “We’re going to be able to try to throw (different looks) at them depending on what defense they throw at us. We have a lot of options running.”

After facing Northwestern in the exhibition this preseason, Coach Cellucci is confident that they can put together a plan that will put them in position to win.

“We played them very well in August in the exhibition and we feel we know what we need to do to win the game.”

“We purposely went into that game showing a lot of different looks each quarter, so we can where we were exposed and where we were actually able to be dominant…It’s just really good to have tons of film to be able to look back on see different combinations.”

The final keys to victory from Coach Cellucci?

1. Counter defense structure to limit the Northwestern transition attack

2. Ability to execute set plays in the offensive corners.

Impact Players

-IOWA-

F Annika Herbine: 6 goals, 6 assists

F Alex Wesneski: 7 goals

MF Lokke & Sofie Stribos: 4 goals, 5 assists combined

MF Esme Gibson: 1 goal, 3 assists

D Anthe Nijziel: 3 goals, 2 assists, 2021 Big Ten DPOY

GK Grace McGuire: 2021 All-American, .778 save pct

-NORTHWESTERN-

F Bente Baekers: 13 goals, 5 assists,

MF Peyton Halsey: 4 goals, 3 assists

MF Ana Medina Garcia: 4 goals

MF Maddie Zimmer: 2 goals

D Kayla Blas: 1 goal, 7 assists

GK Annable Skubisz: 2021 NCAA All-Tourney Team, .773 save pct

Final Thought

55 games in this series have been decided by one goal and 14 have gone into overtime. It’s hard to imagine this game finishing any other way. If the Hawkeyes are going to win, they have to be able to keep Bente Baekers in check and frustrate her enough to keep the Northwestern offense off balance. On the offensive side, Iowa will have to take advantage of the few opportunities they get and find the back of the net a time or two on penalty corners. My prediction is that the final score will be 2-1, but the winner of the contest is up in the air. It could go either way and it should be a great match-up Friday afternoon.