The 17th-ranked Iowa field-hockey team fell to Stanford (6-0), 3-2, in overtime at Grant Field Sunday night.
The defeat drops the Hawkeyes’ to 1-5 overall on the season, giving Iowa as many losses as it suffered during the entire 2008 season.
Iowa began the game with an improved aggression on its frontline pressure, forcing Stanford to play the ball deep in its own zone.
Still, the Cardinal struck first.
Stanford’s Camille Gandhi assisted on a Xanthe Travlos goal off a penalty corner at the 28:39 mark in the first half to put her team up 1-0.
Iowa didn’t hesitate to answer Stanford’s goal. Senior Jess Werley found the back of the net off a penalty corner at 29:47 to tie the game, 1-1. Junior Sarah Pergine assisted on the goal, which was Werley’s third of the season.
Scoring stayed at a standstill for almost a half hour of game time following the first two goals.
Neither team was able to put a dent in the scoreboard until the 57:34 mark when Stanford’s Kelsey Lloyd chipped in her second goal of the season, giving her team a 2-1 advantage.
Iowa head coach Tracey Griesbaum elected to call a time-out with 9:27 remaining in the second half. Whatever the Iowa coaching staff had to say during the time-out worked — the Hawkeyes came back with a heightened sense of urgency.
“In our time-out we talked about pride,” Iowa senior Meghan Beamesderfer said. “This is our field. We need to get a ball in the goal. Just do whatever we could and leave it all on the field to get that goal.”
Iowa’s adjustments saw the Hawkeyes push the Cardinal back even further into its own zone — eventually resulting in Pergine’s second goal of the season at the 68:27 mark, tying the score at 2.
Iowa was able to draw a foul as the second half neared its conclusion, leading to the seventh and final Hawkeye penalty corner of the night.
Iowa was unable to convert on the opportunity with no time remaining on the clock, though. And with the score still knotted up, both teams returned to the sideline to prepare for the extra frame.
Overtime turned out to be shorter than the five minute break preceding it.
It took Stanford’s Jaimee Erickson only 20 seconds to tally her fourth goal of the season, clinching a 3-2 overtime victory and allowing the Cardinal to remain undefeated.
“That’s a great feeling obviously to be able to tie it up in the last minutes of the game and go into overtime,” Iowa freshman Sarah Drake said. “We just needed to pull it out. It was a good fight, but I know it’s disappointing for everyone because we almost had it, and it just slipped away.”
Iowa will try again for its first home victory of the season when it returns to Grant Field to take on Saint Louis (1-4) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“It’s tough,” Beamesderfer said. “We’re going to have to bounce back and take things one day at a time — get some extra work on our skills done and just take it from there.”