The Iowa soccer team picked up their first Big Ten win of the season against Northwestern on Sunday. The Hawks defeated the Wildcats 1-0 in a tightly contested defensive match.

The win snaps Iowa’s two game losing streak and pushes the Hawkeyes record on the season to 9-2-0 and their Big Ten record to 1-2-0.

“It was a little bit disjointed in the attack, but both teams had chances and both teams worked really hard,” head coach Ron Rainey said. “We were excited to come out ahead in the end.”

The Hawkeyes lone goal in the game came in the 85th minute on a penalty kick from senior Ashley Catrell. The dead ball opportunity came about after Catrell was fouled in the box, giving the senior forward the shot to close the game out and put Iowa in the conference win column.

“It feels really good,” Catrell said of the win. “We can pick our heads up after two losses, and to get our first win on the road was pretty big for us.”

The match was decided and dominated by the play of the goalkeepers on each side as both teams combined for 30 shots but only gave up a combined one goal. In the end, Hawkeye goalkeeper Hannah Clark came out on top.

Clark posted her first Big Ten shutout of the season, bringing her total on the year to six. The sophomore has played every minute of each match this season and allowed eight goals while doing so — an average of 0.72 goals allowed per game.

Clark withheld an onslaught on shots from the Northwestern side. The Wildcats finished the game with 19 shots — nine of which were on target — but none of them found the back of the net. Clark finished the game with a season-high eight saves in the match.

“That was her best game of the year,” Rainey said. “Not perfect, but she made some positive strides in this game as far as talking and communicating and making one big time save. It was good to see that.”

Clark was quick to give credit to her teammates in shutting out the Wildcats.

“Our defenders did really well in putting bodies in front of the ball and blocking shots,” Clark said. “We just had a good game, defensively wise.”

Iowa put up 11 shots of their own — with five shots on goal. That number is tied for the least amount of shots the team has attempted in a game this season and falls below their average of 16.10 shots per game that they’ve held up to this point.

“We talked about how hard it is to get results in this conference. Everybody is really close,” Rainey said. “I think people understood that after the game was played.”

No win means more than the other in the win-loss column of Big Ten play, but being that this is the Hawkeyes first victory in conference play, it may put the Hawks on the right track for the rest of the season.

“It’s definitely a confidence booster,” Clark said. “We’re getting the ball rolling. We’ll be better from here on out.”