5 September 2025

After splitting two matches with their Atlantic Coast Conference visitors, the Iowa Hawkeye field hockey team settled down to their regular season. This year they are at home again and face visitors less threatening than their Big Ten rivals. Today’s opponents are Kent State, a university in Ohio I still recall for one of the worst incidents of the 1960s, which gave Stephen Stills the refrain, “Four dead in Ohio.” I hope that terrible era has long since vanished into oblivion. Fortunately the Golden Flashes play serious hockey in the Mid-America Conference; next Friday Iowa will encounter another of the Golden Flashes’ conference rivals, the Miami of Ohio Red Hawks. (It will be fun to report on Hawks versus Hawks.) But Miami may give Iowa a close contest, Kent State’s position in the middle of conference makes it unlikely that the Golden Flash will give the Hawkeye’s much of a scare. But while the results were never in doubt, the score line was closer than one might expect.

Fooling about later with the Massey Rated Power Index, the results of the complicated formula used to determine the seeds for tournaments, I was struck by how it predicted the exact final score, Iowa 4 and Kent State 1. Almost enough evidence to make me start believing in AI. These uneven matches often start on fairly even terms and against the later run of play, something I had learned the hard way watching our US National Team open aggressively and then gradually be ground down by more powerful opponents. As each squad tires, the gap between their level of skill widens. At the mid first quarter, Iowa gained their first penalty corner. Again Zonnenberg (wearing her Yippi Jansen white headband) injected, but van Aalsum’s shot went wide right, and the quarter ended scoreless. But in the second minute of the next, Iowa struck with an assist into the circle by van Cleef to van Aalsum, who scored. Less than a minute later, van Aalsum carried the ball into the circle again, and gained a field goal. A minute later Kent State had a shot on goal which Iowa’s goalkeeper Magnotta saved. Kent gained a penalty corner from an Iowa foot, but Iowa managed a messy clear. Then with less than five minutes to go, Kent won another penalty corner but Magnotta blocked their drag flick. Iowa had one more chance with a penalty corner and tried something new. Instead of injecting to van Aalsum or van Cleef at the castles behind their stoppers, Zonnenberg sent the ball to Milly Short at far left circle, but the Kent goalie was not fooled.

Three minutes into the second half, Iowa’s Téa Fort-Pied got sent to the “naughty step” (as the British commentators term the penalty chair) for two minutes. The Iowa spectators started yelling insults at the “refs”; I was most embarrassed for Iowa. Real hockey followers know that the officials are always called umpires, not referees, and that unlike in vulgar sports like soccer, hockey umpires are always addressed with elaborate deference by players and coaches. With a player up, the Golden Flash finally got stuck into the match. Senior forward Julianne Conroy scored unassisted. I both hoped and feared the momentum would shift to Kent State. A 2-1 lead is always risky, and Iowa needed more wins for a decent season, but I also hoped for an exciting match. But as the quarter ended, Iowa gained another penalty corner and added a cute twist to their routine. Instead of remaining in position behind her stopper, van Aalsum shifted to the left to take the injection and caught the keeper unaware to score an insurance goal for Iowa. The final quarter was never in doubt—all Iowa. In the second minute van Cleef, Whalen, and van Aalsum all had opportunities and only good defensive work by Kent State prevented more Iowa goals. But in the final two minutes, Zonnenberg got another penalty corner and the Hawkeyes once more did something original when van Aalsum took a position at the scoring circle without a stopper and hit Zonnenberg’s injection directly into goal to close out the Iowa victory.

As the Hawk fans celebrated their victory, I had sober feelings about this one. Is Iowa relying entirely too much on van Aalsum, who had scored all four goals? But Coach Lisa knows a lot more about the game than I do, and perhaps she wants to establish the Zonnenberg-van Aalsum connection on PCs firmly before the Hawks face serious opposition. But what happens if she is injured? Kent State played the kind of match that I’d seen our National Team play all too often in the Pro League, able to get just close enough against a stronger team to fan a spark of hope for a victory, and then see their chances vanish just as quickly. Of course I was happy Iowa won but felt little cause to celebrate and little enthusiasm for our match Sunday, when Iowa would face only Lilliputian opposition from Queens University in Charlotte.