The Hawkeyes fall to No. 5 Stanford in a heartbreaker.

By Mario Williams
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There was no time left on the clock at Grant Field on Thursday, and all eyes were on the Stanford field-hockey team as it was about to attempt its fifth penalty corner of the game.

The crowd was silent, the ball went into the circle, and Stanford sophomore Marissa Cicione fired a shot into the goal for the victory, 3-2. A few of the Hawkeyes threw their hands in the air, and the athletes from the Cardinal bench stormed the field.

“It was just disappointing the way the game ended,” head coach Lisa Cellucci said. “We have to find a way in the end when we dominate the statistics to finish the game and to manage the game in the final seconds.

“It’s frustrating when you dominate the statistics.”

As Cellucci said, the Hawkeyes did dominate the stat sheet, but missed opportunities on penalty corners were the name of the game.

“Penalty corners are a necessary part of the game,” Cellucci said. “Their flier was very fast, and we played into it too many times. We needed to speed up the trap and the hit. That would’ve really helped us.”

The Hawkeyes took 17 shots and earned 11 penalty corners. Of those corners, they only made 1, which came from freshman Makenna Grewe. Junior Chandler Ackers contributed with the assist.

However, it wasn’t such a rough go for the No. 15 ranked Hawkeyes, as they kept up with an offensive powerhouse.

The Hawks held the fifth-ranked program in the country to just 9 shots and allowed the team 5 penalty corners. They implemented their plans of using outlet passes and making wise decisions.

“The changes that we made, it was great to see,” Cellucci said. “We were listening, and we were attempting to make changes.”

The Hawks’ second goal of the afternoon came from junior Stephanie Norlander. The native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, fired it in the goal when Ackers found her down the field.

“It was awesome,” Ackers said. “I looked up, saw her cutting, she put her back hand out, and I was like, ‘Oh, I got to hit her that ball.’ She put it in, and I was so glad she did.”

The loss against Stanford should be a confidence-booster for the Hawkeyes heading into the remainder of the season. Their 17 shot attempts were the highest the team has made in a game so far.

And to put those numbers up against the Cardinal is a plus.

“We made a lot of improvements from our past weekends,” Norlander said. “I thought we were physically better than them today. We proved that we can play with the top five, and we’re ready to take on anyone.”

The team will host Kent State on Saturday and St. Louis on Sept. 13. Cellucci wants to focus primarily on executing on penalty corners and continuing to play with toughness the Hawkeyes did Thursday.

“I told the girls it’s going to sting, and they can let it sting tonight, but as soon as we wake up tomorrow, we have to be thinking Kent State and St. Louis,” Cellucci said. “We have to move on and learn from it.”

Follow @marioxwilliams on Twitter for news, updates, and analysis on the Iowa field-hockey team.