Field Hockey: Northwestern opens up conference slate with wins against No. 4 Iowa, Indiana

The Wildcats still run the Big Ten.

This past weekend, the No. 1 ranked Northwestern field hockey team opened up Big Ten play with back-to-back wins. The Wildcats began conference play with a 5-0 victory at home in a classic rivalry match against No. 4 Iowa on Friday, and then added a 1-0 win against Indiana on Sunday in Bloomington. Northwestern now has a perfect 8-0 record.

vs. No. 4 Iowa, September 20

Prior to this game, Iowa was 4-1 and had only conceded two goals across five games. Against Northwestern, the Hawkeyes gave up five goals, suffering their biggest margin of loss since 2012. But somehow, even the scoreline of this game wasn’t enough to describe how lopsided it was.

From the jump, Northwestern dominated possession. Even in a scoreless first quarter, the ball primarily stayed with the Wildcats, who outshot the Hawkeyes 8-1 and were awarded four penalty corners. Even when Iowa attempted to score around ten minutes into the quarter, the ball still quickly ended up on the opposite side of the field.

Iowa goalie Mia Magnotta held her own with four first quarter saves, including when she blocked shots by sophomores Ilse Tromp and Ashley Sessa on consecutive attempts. However, one can only do so much when their opponent is shooting the ball constantly — in the first minute of the second quarter, sophomore Ella Kokinis positioned herself perfectly in front of the goal and tapped the ball past Magnotta, helping NU finally break through.

Around four minutes later, Sessa joined in on the action, scoring a goal via a ball that deflected off of Magnotta’s knee pad to bring the Wildcats up 2-0. Then, midway through the third quarter, Sessa was responsible for arguably the highlight of the entire match. Surrounded by three defenders, she escaped traffic by lifting the ball up with her stick, air-dribbling it toward the goal, and hitting it in while it never touched the ground.

Sessa’s play ended up being ranked No. 4 on SportCenter’s top ten plays.

By that point in the game, Northwestern was running away with the win. Tromp got a goal of her own off a shot from the goal circle later in the third, while Maddie Zimmer found the back of the net to make things 5-0 to start the fourth. Iowa had a few chances to avoid a shutout, but graduate student Annabel Skubisz — despite seeing little action for the majority of the game — made two saves (including an impressive diving one) to thwart the Hawkeyes’ hopes at getting any goals back.

at Indiana, September 22

Northwestern carried its momentum from Friday into Bloomington, eking out a second straight conference win.

Indiana fired an offensive onslaught on the Wildcats early, shooting the ball five times in the first six minutes of the game. However, Skubisz saved four of those shots (including three on the same possession), proving once again why she has the highest save percentage in Division I field hockey (a sparkling .971).

The Hoosiers outshot Northwestern 6-4 in the first quarter, but the Wildcats flipped the switch offensively in the second quarter. About ten minutes in, junior Greta Hinke shot a ball that Indiana goalie Sadie Canelli initially deflected, but Hinke caught the rebound with her stick and shot it past Canelli on her second try. The goal was the first of Hinke’s career.

The second half was scoreless for both teams, but Indiana got close on multiple occasions, outshooting NU 7-3 with bursts of offense happening early in the third quarter and late in the fourth. However, Skubisz made three more saves and the NU defense didn’t let up, preventing the Hoosiers from tying the game up. Skubisz had a total of eight saves, tying her season-high. The victory was the Wildcats’ seventh shutout of the season — no other team in the nation has more than four.

What’s Next?

Northwestern will continue its journey on the road next week, facing No. 7 Maryland and No. 18 Princeton in College Park and Princeton, respectively. The former game will take place on September 27 and has major implications on Big Ten standings (last year, the battle for the Big Ten regular season title game down to Northwestern and Maryland), whereas the latter will be on September 29.