Thursday night was emotional for Hawkeye forward Courtney Powell. The graduate transfer scored her first goal in the Black and Gold in the 22^nd minute of Iowa soccer’s 2-1 victory over Iowa State.

Before she joined Hawkeye head coach Dave DiIanni’s team, she played four years of collegiate soccer with the Cyclones from 2017-20.

In 2020, Powell only played the Cyclones’ fall schedule, opting out of the spring season. In an interview with hawkeyesports.com, Powell said she thought the end of Iowa State’s Fall 2020 season would mark the end of her collegiate soccer career.

Then, Powell’s father, Scott, died in February after a battle with COVID-19. So, Powell decided to transfer to the UI and play one last season to honor him.

After Thursday’s CyHawk soccer game concluded, Powell dedicated her first goal of the 2021-22 season to her father.

“That goal was for him,” Powell said. “So, it was pretty emotional. But it felt good to get it in and get the win.”

Thursday’s game also marked the first time Powell played at the Iowa Soccer Complex as a Hawkeye, and the home crowd did not disappoint her.

“The atmosphere was super electric,” Powell said. “I had a lot of family and friends here. It is hard playing without my dad here in the stands, but having that extra support means the world.”

The Hawkeyes added to the lead Powell created for them in the 54^th minute when senior defender Sara Wheaton scored her first goal of the season on a pass from freshman midfielder Addie Bundy.

“Addie played the most perfect ball I could have ever dreamed of,” Wheaton said. “Like it was hit perfectly, and I just got my foot on it and luckily the keeper went out and it went behind her.”

On the night, the Hawkeyes outshot the Cyclones 19-6. Magdalena Keck scored Iowa State’s only goal of the game in the 72^nd minute.

“I thought we were competitive for 90 minutes,” DiIanni said. “You’re going to get a lot of emotion in the first part of the game. At halftime, I thought we weaned off a little bit at the end of the first half and asked them to do three things in the second half. One was play in the width of the attacking half.”

BIG PICTURE

In its last 13 meetings with Iowa State, Iowa has won 11 games. The Hawkeyes’ victory over the Cyclones Thursday night clinched their second 3-0 start in the last three seasons.

The Hawkeyes have outscored their first three opponents in 2021-22, 5-2, and each of Iowa’s three new starting forwards have scored at least one goal.

Junior Monica Wilhelm has started all of the Hawkeyes’ matches at goalkeeper this season, making six saves in the process.

ROLING HELD SCORELESS

On Thursday night, Iowa State became the first team to prevent Hawkeye forward Kenzie Roling from scoring in a game. The freshman had found the back of the net in each of her first two games in the Black and Gold.

Roling did fire four shots off in 69 minutes of play Thursday, but the Cyclones found a way to shut her out.

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes will travel to Lawrence, Kansas, Sunday for a 1 p.m. matchup with the Jayhawks.

Kansas enters its contest with the Hawkeyes fresh off a 2-0 win over Saint Louis. The Jayhawks’ record is 1-1-1 on the season.

While just two days stand between the Hawkeyes and their next game, DiIanni believes there are things his team can work on ahead of its matchup with the Jayhawks.

“We’re not very deep right now so we got to get healthy,” DiIanni said. “We’re creating corners. We’re not very dangerous on corners. So, we need to be better on set pieces. We’re giving up too much transition on corners, and then finishing in the box. I thought there were some moments today that we should have got some garbage goals, so to speak. Their goalkeeper is a great goalkeeper, but we should have been on the end of a couple of them and made the game a bit easier for us.”