The Iowa women’s soccer team narrowly qualified for the Big Ten Tournament after finishing eighth in the conference, snagging the last qualification spot for postseason play. But the Hawkeyes will have a tough first-round matchup against the top-seeded Big Ten Co-Champion No. 12 Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing on Sunday.
The game will serve as the second matchup in a back-to-back meeting between the two teams, Iowa losing the first match to the Spartans, 3-0, on Oct. 22 to close out the regular season.
“Obviously, we played them in our last game, and that’s kind of a unique situation,” Iowa senior defender Samantha Cary said. “There’s naturally going to be some challenges in the sense that they’re looking at the same film that we’re looking at this week.”
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Cary added that the team has to put the shutout loss into perspective. She said the team had opportunities in the Oct. 22 match and noted plenty of things the team did well.
She added that the Hawkeyes must “wipe it from [their] minds” and prepare for the next session of this season.
Iowa junior forward Kenzie Roling praised the team’s mentality going into the rematch.
She said the team was unsure if it could get a win the first go-around against the Spartans but finds the Hawkeyes are feeling more confident going into the second matchup and thus using the first loss as motivation.
“I think we’re all really excited to play them again,” Roling said. “We knew we didn’t play our best and that we could give them a much different team, so I think we’re excited that we got the opportunity again.”
The Hawkeyes will need a complete performance to knock off the Spartans, but they hope their solid defense will lead them to an upset win.
“Michigan State is a great team,” Cary said. “There’s no denying that they’ve had success for a lot of different reasons, and I give them credit for that.
“That being said, the Big Ten is so tight this year,” she added. “Anywhere from top to bottom, any score could happen on any given day. As much as, yes, Michigan State is the top seed and we’re number eight, I’m not scared of Michigan State.”
But the Spartans offer unique challenges to the Hawkeyes.
Iowa struggled to break the Spartans’ back line in the first matchup between the teams last week.
Roling said the team has been working on its finishing all week since then, hoping to convert some of the shots it had in the first game into goals.
“I think they had a huge, huge student section, and it’s a great environment to play in,” Hawkeye freshman midfielder Millie Greer said. “I think the huge student section was probably a big factor in the momentum of the [first] game.”
While some of the older players on the team hope to end their Hawkeye careers on a high note, the tournament experience will be invaluable to some of the younger players on the team, like Greer.
The Hawkeyes have 13 freshmen on the team, many of whom earned significant playing time as the season continued.
“It’s a huge growing opportunity to be able to play in these really challenging and competitive matches and to be able to play for something like a Big Ten title,” Greer said. “I think in the long run, it’ll just make me and all the other freshmen able to see what we could or can accomplish.”
And both the youth and the experienced players are eager to prove themselves on a bigger stage.
Despite being the last team in, Cary said the Hawkeyes like that they control their destiny and are determined to execute to the level they know they can.
“I think making the Big Ten Tournament is always a big motivator,” Roling said. “It’s really good to get people on that stage and realize this is what we’re playing for, and I think that adds a whole other level of motivation for us.”
