Last week, Karly Stuenkel said her team needed to “have a really good start to conference play.”

Unfortunately, Nebraska, Iowa’s scheduled opponent, was unable to make the journey east because of an illness that swept through the team, and that game has been rescheduled for Oct. 18.

Because the Nebraska game was rescheduled, Iowa had a free weekend to spend prepping for what it hopes will be a successful start to conference play, when it take on No. 7 Penn State at 7 p.m. today and Ohio State on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. Both games will be at the Iowa Soccer Complex.

“We worked on getting healthy,” head coach Dave DiIanni said. “Getting some kids back that either have not been playing or are getting over bumps and bruises. We did a lot of competitive training and finding a little bit more fire. Coming off the Loyola game, where we didn’t have our best performance, I was really proud with how our kids responded.”

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Iowa had arguably its worst game in nonconference play the last time it took the field, almost two weeks ago against Loyola.

The Hawkeyes outshot the Wolfpack 8-6, but Loyola netted 50 percent of its shots while none of Iowa’s chances went in.

More of Iowa’s shots will have to go in this weekend in order to keep with Ohio State and Penn State, who both rank top five in the Big Ten in goals per game. But most of the burden this weekend will be on Iowa’s defense tasked with stopping both offenses.

“Obviously, [Ohio State and Penn State are] huge defensive games for us,” senior defender Corey Burns said. “They’re both good attacking teams. I think defensively, it’s just making sure we stay connected as a unit. It’s got to be a full defensive team game for both teams.”

Iowa hasn’t had too many poor defensive outings this season. In fact, the Hawkeyes have allowed only 7 goals in seven games and recorded three shutouts.

Both the defense and offense will have to be better in conference play than last year if Iowa wishes to improve on last season’s 2-9 Big Ten record.

“I think a lot of it is our kids understanding that the margin for error is a lot smaller in Big Ten play,” DiIanni said. “The Big Ten is arguably the second-best conference in the country. I think we have a team that should and will do well in the Big Ten, but we have to get complete buy-in from everybody, and when we have opportunities, we have to score goals, and we can’t break down defensively like we did against Loyola.”