The Iowa field hockey team dropped a top-15 Big Ten match against No. 12 Ohio State, 2-1, at Grant Field on Friday. It was the Hawkeyes’ first loss of the season. 

The game started fast and physical. Both teams flexed their defenses with no shots on goal attempted in the first period of play. 

Much of the second period remained the same. The Buckeyes applied the pressure on the Hawkeyes, forcing Iowa’s sophomore goalie Mia Magnotta to make two of her three saves in the game.  

But the Buckeyes finally pushed it past the cage. Ohio State senior forward Makenna Webster capitalized on a penalty corner with only seconds remaining to score her 14th goal of the season. 

“Backbreaking is the perfect word for it,” Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci said. “Score, time, and game management was poor in that moment for us. Just an unfortunate moment going into that break.”

The Hawkeyes tied the contest up at the beginning of the third period. Iowa freshman forward Dionne Van Aaslum notched her 22nd goal of the year off of an assist from junior midfielder Lieve Schalk. 

“It was a great play,” Cellucci said. “Lieve eliminated two players and gave a great pass to Dionne and a really good finish. Really textbook right around the gold mouth.”

Momentum seemed to favor Iowa after van Aaslum missed her second goal of the contest off of a penalty corner just minutes later. 

But the Buckeyes responded. Ohio State freshman forward Brenna Bough regained the lead in the 37th minute with her seventh goal of the season. 

The Hawkeyes entered the fourth period down, 2-1. With minutes left in the contest, van Aalsum was inches away from tying the game up for the Hawkeyes. 

“We had a near miss there in the fourth quarter that was inches away,” Cellucci said. “We needed more of that more often. We just didn’t put Ohio State under enough pressure.”

The Buckeyes hung tough with the final minutes and won their tenth contest of the season and third in conference play. 

“We really still believed we were going to put them under some pressure and draw some more offensive opportunities,” Cellucci said. “We were very disconnected. Our lack of ability to join the play really hurt us.”

Overall the Hawkeye offense struggled on the day. Iowa only put two shots on goal in the evening, both by van Aalsum. 

“[Ohio State] just played to their plan,” Cellucci said. “They were connected. They moved hard. They worked their feet. They played very basic and simple team defense. We unfortunately were really disconnected offensively.”

Defensively, that was the most goals scored against the Hawkeyes in a game all season. The Buckeyes applied pressure all game, using their 11 shots and eight penalty corners to their advantage. 

“We didn’t think we were going to match them foot by foot, but we could have matched them collectively as a better defensive unit,” Cellucci said. “I think we let ourselves down at different points of the game with transition defense.”

Up Next

The Iowa field hockey team will resume play on Sunday. Iowa will take on Michigan State at Grant Field at 12 p.m. The Spartans enter the contest 3-6 after falling to Northwestern on Friday, 6-0.