For its last two games, the Iowa field-hockey team has been on the wrong end of shutouts.

The Hawkeyes fell to Ohio State, 2-0, on Oct. 11 in Columbus, Ohio. Then, eighth-ranked Michigan State shut out the Hawks, 3-0, on Oct. 16 in Iowa City.

But Sunday afternoon, the Hawkeyes were the ones with the barrier in front of their goal. Iowa (5-8, 2-3 Big Ten) shut out Penn State (5-10, 1-2), 1-0, at a raucous Grant Field.

Behind the most energized home crowd of the season, the Hawkeyes snapped a two-game losing streak with great defense and great goaltending. Still, things weren’t easy for Iowa.

With Penn State just as desperate for a victory, the teams vied in a classic Big Ten tussle.

“A lot of the girls on our team are from Pennsylvania,” said Iowa freshman goalie Kathleen McGraw, who recorded her first career shutout. “It’s turned into a pretty big rivalry over the years. It was just a lot of energy from the locker room all the way until we went out onto the field.”

Freshman Geena Lesiak scored the only goal of the game at the 22:35 mark of the first half. Her goal, a chip-in on a beautiful pass from senior Tricia Dean, was her third of the season. The assist was Dean’s team-leading sixth of the year.

The rest of the game, however, was a scrap.

Players battled for every loose ball, ferocious defense met every penalty corner, and every attacking opportunity faced a challenge.

The Hawkeyes did all of those things a bit better — and a difficult late-game scenario served as a microcosm.

Penn State earned its fourth penalty corner of the game with 3:20 remaining. But Iowa stamped out the scoring opportunity.

Immediately after, the same situation occurred three more times.

But a zero remained next to Penn State on the Grant Field scoreboard.

“We have been struggling on our defensive penalty corners,” Hawkeye senior Meghan Beamesderfer said. “But I just knew we were going to get every one of those balls out [of the striking circle]. You could just tell by everybody’s morale.”

After the near-cardiac-arrest-provoking situation, the Hawkeyes held off the Nittany Lions to preserve the victory. As Iowa head coach Tracey Griesbaum said, “It wasn’t pretty.” But she was happy with the result.

“To have a defensive penalty corner stand like that late in the game, that builds your character and gives you confidence,” she said. “We haven’t really had those type of defensive flurries, really, for a year. It was really positive to find a way to win.”

The game can be seen as a taped-delayed broadcast on the Big Ten Network at 7 p.m. today.

Iowa’s next contest will be on Friday, when the team will travel to Evanston, Ill., to face No. 16 Northwestern (12-5, 1-3).