It wasn’t pretty, but the Iowa soccer team remained undefeated Sunday as it defeated Wright State, 1-0, at the Iowa Soccer Complex.

The win pushes the Hawkeyes record to 6-0 and extended their nonconference winning streak to 24 straight.

“I don’t think we played as well as we could have today,” head coach Ron Rainey said. “We told our kids we have 19 chances to do this during the season, and I think in a college soccer game, you have to be ready mentally and emotionally to play a game. I don’t think we did that.”

The first and only score in the contest came in the 66th minute on a free kick from junior defender Melanie Pickert. The Canton, Mich., native launched the ball from just inside the midfield line into a group of Hawkeyes and Raiders. The ball ricocheted off the head of a Wright State player and into the back of the net.

“Anne Marie [Thomas] and Alex [Melin] draw a lot of kids to them,” Pickert said. “I just tried to get it into to where they were at, and I think they caused some confusion.”

Defensively, the Hawkeyes were their usual self. They held Wright State scoreless, posting their fifth shutout of the season.

Goalkeeper Hannah Clark picked up her sixth win of the season. Clark has now played all of Iowa’s first six matches and allowed only 1 goal all season. The Hawkeyes average allowing 0.17 goals per game.

In the first half of the match, Iowa not only kept Wright State from scoring, it couldn’t even get off a shot. Wright State finished the game with only 5 shots — 3 of which were shots on goal.

“A shutout always feels good,” defender Caitlin Brown said. “But I think we’d agree that we didn’t play how we wanted to today.”

On the other side of the ball, Iowa eclipsed its usual shot rate of 16 shots per game by shooting 17 times during the course of the match. However, the high volume of shots did not lead to a high scoring output — the Hawks struggled to find the back of the net.

“We need to work on lowering our frustration level,” Brown said. “We’re not going to score on every chance we have. We just need to try to keep our heads, and keep working, and know that the next one is going to go in.”

The lack of scoring can also be accredited to a solid outing by Wright State goalkeeper Brooke McCurdy. Of the Hawkeyes’ 17 shots, 9 of them were shots on goal. McCurdy finished the game with 6 saves.

While a win is a win, the Hawkeyes are looking to learn from this game and play better when they take on St. Louis on Friday.