Iowa field hockey’s Dionne van Aalsum was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year on Wednesday.

She is the sixth Hawkeye in program history to achieve the feat and the first since Katie Birch in 2016.

The rookie out of Castricum, Netherlands, has started all 17 games for the Hawkeyes this season and leads the nation with 27 goals, 60 points, 1.59 goals per game, and 3.53 points per game.

Throughout the regular season, van Aalsum earned four Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors and four Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

The rookie and fifth-year Esme Gibson also received first-team All-Big Ten recognition. Gibson has earned All-Big Ten honors for three straight seasons. Iowa has had at least one first-team All-Big Ten selection in each of the past 13 seasons. 

Fourth-year Harper Dunne was Iowa’s recipient for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

The 13-4 Hawkeyes received the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament hosted in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Iowa will play No. 3 seed Maryland in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 4 p.m.

The Hawkeyes lost, 4-1, to the Terrapins in the regular season. Iowa is 1-1 all-time against Maryland in the conference tournament.

The winner of Iowa and Maryland will face the winner of Michigan and Rutgers in the semifinals on Friday at 2:30 p.m.