Iowa soccer graduate transfer Alyssa Walker’s sixth goal of the season meant a little bit more to her on Thursday night as the Hawkeyes took down Maryland, 2-0.

The Hawkeyes played Thursday’s game with mental health awareness in mind. Walker curved a ball past Terrapin goalkeeper Madeline Smith in the 85th minute for the second goal of the game, in honor of one of her friends.

“It’s huge to me,” Walker said. “Going through my own mental health struggles and losing a friend to mental health struggles. Today really meant a lot to me, and I don’t know if it was seen after I scored my goal, but I have a tattoo on my shoulder in honor of my friend. So, I kind of show that, and today I was really playing for him.”

Senior midfielder Hailey Rydberg scored the Hawkeyes’ first goal of the match in the 34^th minute. Rydberg almost passed the ball to Walker, but the senior saw she had space right in front of her.

So, Rydberg fired a shot off her left foot at the top of the penalty box, and the ball found the inside of the right corner of the goal.

Rydberg’s goal, her first since the 2019 season, was the Hawkeyes’ first goal in a first half since Sept. 9 at Kansas City.

“I think it was huge, momentum-wise,” Rydberg said of her goal. “It gave us that confidence to be able to keep going at them, and drive for that second goal and just being up going into the second half as well.”

Iowa head coach Dave DiIanni was impressed with the Hawkeyes ’competitive spirit in the first half, as well as their defensive efforts — Iowa only surrendered four shots on goal.

“We got a lot of kids that have been out this year and some people are playing different roles, and really, really happy with our team in terms of resiliency of how they’re playing,” DiIanni said.

BIG PICTURE

The Hawkeyes (8-3-1 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten) got back into the win column after dropping their previous two matches.

Iowa earned three more points in the conference standings, bumping their overall point total to six — keeping the Hawkeyes in the hunt of qualifying for the eight-team Big ten tournament.

Iowa has also won 29 consecutive matches while scoring at least two goals, dating back to the 2017 season.

SCHUELLER STEPS UP

After senior defender Olivia Hellweg suffered a season-ending injury against Purdue on Sunday, freshman Miah Schueller filled into the starting lineup.

Schueller played the full 90 minutes in her first start of her career while committing two fouls.

“Miah, I thought played really well and played herself into it,” DiIanni said. “Early on they picked on her a little bit, in the second half I thought she adjusted.”

UP NEXT 

The Hawkeyes will stay in Iowa City as they take on Michigan State at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Spartans (7-1-3 overall, 2-1-1 in the Big Ten) tied, 2-2, at Nebraska on Thursday.

In their last meeting in 2019, the Hawkeyes soundly defeated the Spartans in East Lansing, 3-0.

“I think it’s a match that’s going to matter later on in the year,” DiIanni said. “Because we’re pretty close in the standings.”