Iowa Field Hockey falls to #10 Louisville in NCAAT First Round

As Aimee Plumb’s overtime penalty corner shot hit the back of the goal, a flurry of what-ifs began to come to mind, as the once top-ranked Iowa Field Hockey team saw their season end in double overtime to Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. What if Rachel Herbine’s tip, redirect earlier in the game that went just inches wide of the goal had gone in to make it 2-0 Iowa? What if the Hawkeyes got a new opponent for the first round instead of a rematch against Louisville? And then the biggest one…What if the Hawkeyes got to play the second half of the season at full strength, instead of without two starters due to season-ending injuries. Unfortunately, none of those will actually ever be answered. Instead, it’s just the end of the season, with Iowa finishing with a 13-6 record. Louisville will face Northwestern on Sunday with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

“We had a lot of unknowns coming into the season, just with so many newcomers. I mean, we were ranked number one in the country for five weeks in the season. That’s something to really be proud of,” said head coach Lisa Cellucci. “The two season-ending injuries really, really hurt us, but proud of the way this team rebounded and being able to play ourselves in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid was really tough.”

With the two teams meeting in Louisville less than a month ago, it was not a surprise to see the first 23 minutes of the game play out in pretty quiet fashion. It was a feeling out process early. The Cardinals put three shots on goal in the opening quarter, including one from Izzy Bianco on a penalty corner, but Iowa GK Mia Magnotta held strong in goal.

Midway through the second quarter, it was the Hawkeyes that broke through with a goal. On a penalty corner opportunity in the 24th minute, Dionne van Aalsum put a shot on net and it found the goal, deflecting off of the pads of Louisville GK Merlijn van der Vegt. That put Iowa up 1-0 with under seven minutes to go in the half.

Just two minutes later, they nearly made it 2-0. Lieve Schalk took the ball after a foul and quickly restarted play with a pass into the circle ticketed for Rachel Herbine. Herbine got her stick down and directed it past van der Vegt, but the ball trickled eight, maybe ten inches wide of the post. That close to a commanding lead.

In the 37th minute, the Cardinals were able to tie it up. After an Iowa turnover, Aimee Plumb raced out in transition and got a shot on goal. Mia Magnotta made a save, but the ball kicked out in front of the goal allowing for a rebound chance. Louisville’s Niamh Gowing and Iowa defender Milly Short got to the ball at the same time. It bounced off the stick of Gowing, hit Short in the foot and rolled into the goal.

“They cuaght us in transition a little bit too much. That was the one thing, if we could take back, if we could have stopped the transition a little bit more that would have helped us because we were a bit gassed there in the second half,” said Cellucci.

After 60 minutes, the score was still tied. Louisville had the 8-7 advantage in shots and a 5-1 advantage in shots on goal, but the important numbers on the scoreboard showed 1-1. In the first overtime, the Cardinals got a penalty corner, but a shot from India Reed went wide of the goal. After ten minutes of play, the game went to a second overtime.

In the 78th minute, Louisville earned a penalty corner on an obstruction call on defender Milly Short. On the ensuing corner chance, they got the ball to Aimee Plumb and she put a shot towards the goal. Minna Tremonti got a stick on it, as did defender Lieve Schalk, but the ball found the goal to give the Cardinals a 2-1 win in double overtime.

“I thought we stuck to the plan for the most part. Our entire part of this was being able to build the ball and have really good angles and looks out of outlet and I think for the majority of the game we did a good job with that,” said Cellucci. “Each team had a couple of runs (in overtime), we just couldn’t find a way to capitalize in the offensive half.”

The Hawkeyes finish the season with a 13-6 record, including wins over at the time, #1 North Carolina, #3 Rutgers and #5 Louisville. Iowa is set to return the majority of their starting lineup next season, but must replace All-American midfielder Esme Gibson and Sofie Stribos, who combined to start 190 games over the course of their five year careers.