Following a dominant performance at Missouri State, the No. 11 Iowa women’s soccer opened Big Ten play with a 1-1 draw against Northwestern on Friday night.

In the end, both teams failed to put one last goal over each other and had to leave with a draw as a result, but this seems to become a trend when Iowa and Northwestern get together. 

“It’s funny how matchups really play a huge part to how you play at times and I think we’ve had a tough time when matching up with Northwestern,” head coach Dave Dilanni said. “The way they play and the adjustments they make, Micheal Moynihan is a really good coach and the game just played out like the last 6-8 years have played out, one goal game or a tie.” 

Iowa looked to dominate the game from the start knowing they had an accurate scouting report and knew that they needed to press early. However as the first 45 minutes went on, the Hawkeyes struggled to get possession. 

“We were moving the ball and then would give it right away or try and make a big play-making pass,” third-year Millie Greer said. 

“For the first half we were very disjointed and we got rocked pretty quickly early on in terms of confidence and then we just stopped believing in the game plan,” Dilanni said. 

Iowa attempted to make changes in the second half, but Northwestern opened the scoring on a goal from second-year Alex Fallon. 

“We didn’t defend the throw-in properly and then we let a kid run 45-50 yards without defending,” Dilanni said.

The Wildcats would hold that lead for most of the game, but Greer saved the day with a clutch goal with just 16:32 left in the game. 

MILLIE DOES IT! pic.twitter.com/VAHAzzSMUt

— Hawkeye Soccer (@HawkeyeSoccer) September 13, 2025

Northwestern tried to recapture its lead, but the Hawkeyes stuffed a pair of corner kicks to preserve the tie. Iowa would have a corner kick of its own, but a possible mis-communication ended that opportunity when the ball was rolled back to an Iowa defender and quickly challenged and knocked out of bounds. 

“We would have liked to get something a bit more dangerous out of that with about three to four minutes left to go but I think it was a play we were trying to run and it obviously did not get executed very well,” Dilanni said. 

Up next 

Now 5-1-2 on the season, Iowa returns to action on Sept. 18 for a conference showdown at Purdue, who is 4-3-2 on the season.

“We’ve still got some players that are beat up, played a lot of minutes, and some players that have not come back yet,” Dilanni said. “Ultimately getting healthy is important as well as practicing being cohesive in how we play. If we’re going to press we need to press as a group and right now we are pressing in small groups.”