It’s been slightly more than a year since Iowa softball last won a game on its home field. This can be frustrating, but it can also be inspiring.

Iowa will try to use this motivation to grab some wins this weekend against Illinois at home. It hasn’t won a game at Pearl Field since April 8, 2018.

The Hawkeyes will have to break a few other streaks as well in order to do it. The team is on a nine-game losing streak and is in something of an offensive slump. But a 2-0 loss to Iowa State on Tuesday was a breakthrough in a lot of ways — starting pitcher Allison Doocy got her stuff back with one of her better outings in the last few weeks, and the hitters were getting quality looks at the plate. This, head coach Renee Gillispie said, is an indicator that good things are to come.

“We just have to keep getting better,” she said. “You’re seeing what we looked like this weekend [against Wisconsin] — there were some situations where we ran ourselves out of bases, out of opportunities, out of innings. We have to stop that, and we did that [against Iowa State]. As long as we start seeing that little improvement, we will see some good things happen this weekend.”

Only two hitters found daylight at the plate in the loss — freshman Sydney Owens and junior Havyn Monteer each got a hit — but Gillispie said there were other promising signs. Hard-hit balls and only 3 strikeouts might mean Iowa is on its way out in an offensive slump. It’s a good time, too; Big Ten play is only really getting started, so the team might be able to make a run at the standings in the first year of Gillispie at the helm of the program.

“It’s a brawl in the Big Ten, just a crazy outing right now,” she said. “We’re working to get in the Big Ten Tournament. We have to win some games this weekend and then go to Rutgers and take care of a couple things there.”

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As is typically the case with this conference, quality opponents are all over the place. Iowa had a tough series against Wisconsin in Madison last weekend with an offensive jackhammer in the Badgers. The Illini are even better, with a 24-13 overall record this season. Illinois took down Wisconsin in a series just a few weeks ago on the shoulders of some high-level hitting.

Four Illinois players have an average better than .360. Bella Loya leads the pack with a .403 average with 12 doubles and 11 home runs. To put that in perspective, no Hawkeye hitters have a batting average better than .300 after the offensive slump. Doocy and the pitching staff will have their hands full this weekend.

But the players understand that all they can do is take care of their side of the game and have faith that results will follow.

“We’re excited to play Illinois,” Doocy said. “This is a big turnaround for us, we’re excited to see how this weekend goes … [For me] it’s just doing the little things right. As a team, we work together to produce offensively and defensively. That’s all we have to do to get some wins this weekend.”