No. 3 Iowa women’s soccer continues to dance in the 2024 NCAA Tournament after defeating No. 6 Georgetown 1-0 on Friday night — advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. 

This marked the first matchup ever between Iowa and Georgetown — with Iowa now leading the all time series, 1-0. The 2024 campaign for the Hawkeyes now continues with an overall record of 15-2-4 on the season. Georgetown — fresh off a 3-0 win against Fairfield in the opening round — was looking to pull of an upset against the Hawkeyes to keep its season alive, to no avail.

Veteran forward Meike Ingles catapulted the Hawkeyes past the Hoyas with a goal at the 54:30 mark.

Both defenses were firing on all cylinders to start the match, with the first shot coming at the 9:12 mark. The remainder of the first half continued with a back-and-forth battle of shots from the Hawkeye and Hoya offenses — with neither team finding success in the box. 

Iowa and Georgetown’s defensive dominance in the first half remained prevalent as both teams headed into halftime scoreless at 0–0. 

Opening the second half of play, Georgetown’s Maja Lardner recorded an unsuccessful shot. Just a couple of minutes after Lardner’s failed attempt, Ingles decided to take matters into her own hands. 

Coming off a mid-field free kick from goalkeeper Macy Enneking, a fortunate couple of bounces in favor of the Hawkeyes found Ingles at the top of the box. 

With Hoya goalkeeper Cara Martin still recovering from an initial collision from Enneking’s free kick, Ingles, with no hesitation, saw an opportunity to strike and did just that — striking a goal with her right leg into the bottom left quadrant of the goal and moving the lead to 1-0 in favor of Iowa. 

Ingles now has seven goals on the season, tying first-year Berit Parten with the most goals on the team. 

With plenty of experience in close one-score games during the regular season, No. 3 Iowa displayed its maturity on the field by holding off Georgetown for the final 36 minutes of play. 

Enneking finished the game with only one save on the night and no goals allowed. For the Hoyas, Martin finished with three saves and one goal allowed. The Hawkeye offense finished with six shots while the Hoyas were close behind with five shots on the night.

Up next 

Hawkeye soccer will face No. 7 Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16 on Sunday, the Hokies having upset No. 2 UCLA in their own Round of 32 matchup. Virginia Tech also defeated Tennessee 2-1 in their opening round of play and came into the matchup against the Bruins with a 11-5-3 record.

First kick is set for 8 p.m., again in Los Angeles.