By Michael McCurdy
After last week’s success at home, the Hawkeye field-hockey team looking forward to its last big test before conference play.
Iowa will travel to Kent, Ohio, this weekend to take on Monmouth at 11 a.m. Saturday and Kent State at 11 a.m. Sept. 11.
Monmouth is undefeated, 4-0, and comes off a successful season in which it won its conference regular-season championship. It returns 12 players from the last season’s roster, which will only make this year’s team more experienced.
Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci very much looks forward to the game against Monmouth and how her team will handle that team’s skilled offensive players.
“Monmouth is a very quality opponent; it has three players down the field that are outstanding and really individually skilled,” she said. “They drive the course of their team.”
It will be Iowa’s first major challenge since Week 1 against Wake Forest and North Carolina. The Hawkeyes have worked on many different facets of the game since then, including team passing and team defense when the opposing team has the ball in the scoring circle.
Cellucci has been impressed with her team’s growth but hopes the team does not look ahead and continues to buy into the process.
One of the major challenges of starting off a season strong is keeping the team focused and not letting the spotlight get to anyone. As a senior, one of Sophie Plasteras’ jobs is to make sure her teammates keep their composure.
“I think we should be excited with how well we’ve done so far,” she said. “But we definitely know that other teams are watching us, and we’re not going to have any easy games. So, we have to be humble and work if we want to continue winning.”
After the Hawkeyes play Monmouth, they will take on Kent State. The Golden Eagles enter the match at 4-1, playing a much more difficult schedule than Monmouth. The Eagles are coming off a tremendous season in which they won both the Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament.
Iowa senior Alexandra Pecora said she is ready for the challenge and is excited to see how her team builds on last weekend’s success and how the younger players compete since they got lots of action against Fairfield and St. Louis.
Pecora understands the two teams are coming off successful seasons and this year have started out strong, but as a senior, she hopes to make sure her team is ready.
“Both these teams got bids in the NCAA Tournament last year, and both have great records,” Pecora said. “But we’ll be ready.”
