This weekend will mark the beginning of the Big Ten field-hockey quarterfinals.
Michigan, earning the No. 1 seed in the tourney, clinched the Big Ten regular-season title with an 8-0 record. The Wolverines will host the semifinals and championship games in East Lansing, Michigan, Nov. 3-5.
No. 2 seed Maryland (6-2 Big Ten) will face off against No. 7 Michigan State. Last time these two teams met, the Terps downed the Spartans, 4-1. Maryland pulled a win against Iowa, 2-1, in September, and Iowa last weekend crushed Michigan State, 7-1, so if these results are anything to judge by, Maryland shouldn’t have much trouble giving Michigan State the same treatment Iowa did.
No. 6 Iowa (3-5 Big Ten), will take on No. 3 Penn State (6-2) at University Park, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 28. Penn State, ranked sixth in the nation, took the Big Ten title last season and previously beat the Hawkeyes, 3-0. Iowa, ranked 25th overall, will have a tough fight this weekend — the Hawkeyes need to play with the fire they did against Michigan State and Ohio State and put together that full 70 minutes of play in order to stand up to the Nittany Lions.
Northwestern, ranked No. 4 with a Big Ten record of 6-2, will take on No. 5 Rutgers (3-5). These teams last faced off in September, the score coming out as 3-2, Northwestern. Both teams defeated Iowa, even though Iowa has a history of defeating both of them. The results for the Northwestern-Rutgers game will likely favor Northwestern.
The No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, Ohio State and Indiana, will square off against each other. Indiana was Iowa’s first victory of the Big Ten season, the Hawkeyes taking the match, 4-3. Iowa also topped Ohio State, 1-0, on Sunday, but by those score differences and that Ohio State beat Indiana, 2-1, the last time they met, it’s likely that Ohio State will claim another win.
If the Hawkeyes can’t pull through, it’s assumed that Maryland, Penn State, Northwestern, and Ohio State move up to semifinals the following weekend in Michigan. If the Hawkeyes can show what they’re really made of for the full game, despite their lack of depth and low scoring statistics, Penn State could potentially be replaced by Iowa in that mix. Rutgers may also potentially pull a win against Northwestern, so the lineup could just as easily feature Maryland, Iowa, Rutgers, and Ohio State.
At that point, Ohio State is likely going to be the first to fall of the four semifinalists, but the other two could be a real contest. With three teams ranked 6-2 in the Big Ten, it will be hard to predict the top placings this time around Big Ten finals. If the Hawkeyes can beat the odds, they could find themselves among that mix. But beating the Nittany Lions, for now, needs to be the focus.
