Bill's Hockey Blog

31 August

Meeting North Carolina in the B1G/ACC Challenge takes me back to the most thrilling match I ever witnessed at Grant Field, when the Hawkeyes actually defeated the Tar Heels. There was no reason to expect such an outcome this year, North Carolina was rated second in the NFHCA preseason poll and along with their unexpected loss to Saint Joseph last year in the NCAA semifinals, they would be coming onto the pitch determined to regain their customary first place by beating everyone. But after Friday’s exciting but messy 5-4 win over Wake Forest, I was eager to see how Iowa would look against a truly top-level team. North Carolina were missing one of their most dangerous strikers, Charley Bruder, but Iowa was without Randy Jackson as well as Sabrina McGroarty, who had been sitting in the stands during the Michigan game carrying on an animated conversation with the mother of Grace Hunter. (Both come from the same town in New Jersey and probably played for the same club.)
Iowa came out strong and gained two penalty corner attempts in the second minute. North Carolina blocked van Aalsum’s shots and cleared successfully but scarcely more than a minute later Jordan Byers passed to van Aalsum in the circle, who scored. Iowa’s lead lasted five minutes till North Carolina got a penalty corner. Mia Magnotta blocked their drag flick but Dani Mendez tipped it back into the goal.
At the end of the quarter the teams looked fairly even with three shots each. But in the next momentum shifted to the Heels as in the very first minute Ryleigh Heck, another returnee from the USWNT’s silver medal squad in Montevideo scored a field goal on an assist from Mendez. From that point the match belonged to North Carolina. Mendez struck again for a field goal before the half. In the third quarter the momentum remained with North Carolina though the score remained even. Magnotta demonstrated her goalkeeping skills and van Aalsum was superb as our number one runner defending two PCs. And Iowa was not without chances. Milly Short, who is not only the strongest player on the Iowa team but one of the fastest, penetrated the North Carolina circle and got a shot at their goal. I always love seeing a fullback getting a chance at a field goal—it happens so seldom. And van Aalsum accomplished a superb steal just outside their circle and won Iowa a PC that unfortunately they failed to convert.

In the last quarter the Tar Heels put the win beyond doubt. In the first minute a coordinated series of long passes put the ball to Reese Anetsberger, who took the ball into the Iowa circle and passed to Kara Heck, who scored. Kara is the sister of Ryleigh. She has played against Iowa before, coming to Carolina as a grad student after graduating Rutgers. Iowa still had chances. A complicated penalty corner routine failed, not surprisingly as even the best teams cannot execute these cute tricky patterns fast enough to fool the goalie. Two more before the end were equally fruitless.

On reflection I found this a more dispiriting match than our Hawkeyes clearly deserved. Although it felt that the Hawks were clearly outplayed as North Carolina dominated the match, the statistical figures tell a much closer story. The Hawks had six penalty corners s to the Heels’ four. But the Hawks converted none of theirs, and scored only one field goal to three for the Heels. It feels that Iowa has to rely too much on van Aalsum as principal scorer on the field, the most aggressive player in the struggle for control in the midfield, the shooter and drag flicker on penalty corner attacks, and the flyer on defense. And she cannot do it all herself. Perhaps with three weaker teams to face next, the Hawks can develop a coordinated attack and start scoring more goals before they face what should be their next big challenge, Louisville at home.