After starting the season 1-5, the Hawkeyes were wounded and flying low. Iowa previously failed to win during four home games and dropped out of the Division-I national coaches’ poll after ranking No. 9 in the preseason.

Clearly, the team needed something.

Iowa’s 12-0 discombobulation of St. Louis on Sept. 19 might have been just it.

The 12 goals — the most scored by an Iowa team since 1997 — were scored by six different Hawkeyes. Not one but two players scored three goals each: Seniors Tricia Dean and Jess Werley both registered their first career hat tricks.

Dean’s three goals came uninterrupted, all within five minutes of each other in the first half. Werley’s three scores bump her season total up to six, tying her with freshman Sarah Drake for tops on the team.

After only scoring six goals in its previous four home games, it was the first time Iowa left Grant Field this season without the taste of Kopi Luwak (look it up) in its mouth.

To say the 2009 campaign has gotten off to a rough start — especially for the team’s eight freshmen — would be an understatement.

“I think this is really, really important,” Drake said. “We play really hard against each other in practice. We beat up each other in practice.

“It’s really nice to take it against another team like St. Louis — just to be able to play against other girls. It’s important for us to show that we can play against a team and accomplish our goals that we have in pregame meeting.”

If one of the Hawkeyes’ pregame goals was to score more, they certainly did that.

But that wasn’t all.

The victory serves as a morale booster for a team that was in dire need of one.

St. Louis is not nearly as talented as the other teams Iowa has faced (or will face) this season.

And it’s safe to say the Hawkeyes won’t drop double digits all over the Big Ten this season — especially not Friday, when Iowa travels to play Michigan for its Big Ten opener in Ann Arbor, Mich.

But these youthful Hawkeyes needed a tangible reminder of the progress they have made this season.

When four of a team’s five losses come by one goal against teams that are either ranked in the top 20 or receiving votes, it can be difficult to stay confident and grasp the improvements that have been made.

It was only a week ago the Hawkeyes fell to Stanford, 3-2, just 20 seconds into overtime. And coming into a game against the less-talented Billikens — which received my vote for having the creepiest mascot in the nation — Iowa could have brought a lackluster effort and still came out with a victory.

Instead, the Hawkeyes brought their best — setting the tone for what is sure to be a brutal Big Ten season.