The No. 11 Iowa field-hockey team finished its regular season with a 5-2 win over Ball State in Muncie, Ind., on Oct. 28.

Iowa finished 14-3 (4-2 in Big Ten games), the most wins for the Hawkeyes since 2007.

"We started strong and ended strong," head coach Tracey Griesbaum said in a release. "We struggled to get offensive flow, but we managed to execute well enough to score five goals."

The Black and Gold opened the scoring quickly when senior Becca Spengler tallied her fifth goal of the season at the 1:33 mark.

Sophomore Aubrey Coleman added Iowa’s second goal of the game just six minutes later off of an assist from junior Sarah Drake.

The Cardinals countered with a goal at the 12:56 mark, but Iowa’s Jessica Barnett netted a hat-trick to push the Hawkeyes past Ball State (4-14). The Cardinals were only able to come up with one more goal.

The Hawkeyes wrapped up a No. 4 seed for the Big Ten Tournament, and they will head to Penn State for a first-round matchup with No. 5-seeded Indiana on Thursday morning. The winner of that match will face top seed Michigan on Friday in the semifinals, and the championship game is slated for Saturday afternoon.

Iowa beat Indiana, 4-2, on Oct. 15 in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes lost to the Wolverines, 2-0, in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Oct. 1.

— by Nick Szafranski