14 September 

After the match against Miami, I stayed to watch the first quarter of the next, the Louisville Cardinals versus the Northwestern Wildcats. Before the ‘Cats went onto the pitch, I had a chance to greet their striker Ashley Sessa, who plays on the US Women’s National Team as well, reminding her we had met in Antwerp during the 2024 Pro League. She wasn’t wearing her shin guards and did not play, sidelined because of a contretemps the previous weekend, where she received a red card for bashing a Boston College player on the head—totally unintentional, but a hockey stick can do serious injury.  (I wrote a novel in which the villain is killed with a Grays MX1000 .) Tired after a long day after arriving at ten a.m. to watch Saint Louis against Bellermine, I left after the first quarter and while leaving ‘ Louisville scored.  I missed an exciting and suspenseful match. Louisville held their one-goal lead to the very final minutes of the match, when the ‘Cats rallied and equalized, and then won in overtime. With Sessa, playing the contest probably would not have been so close. But it meant that Louisville, though unranked on the NFHCA poll, could play some serious hockey.  

On Sunday Northwestern played Miami in the opening match and easily vanquished them 5-1. Sessa was back on pitch and scored brilliantly in the second half, taking the ball deep in Northwestern territory and sending a long pass up-field, then dashing the length of the pitch into the Miami scoring circle, then took an assist, and scored, adding to her total of brilliant goals. I turned to the ‘Cats fans next to me, the parents of midfielder Greta Hinke, and shouted. “She did it all by herself!”  

At the captains meeting before the match, Iowa won the toss for the opening pushback and the Hawks attacked flat out. One minute into the match, van Aalsum carried the ball into the Cardinal circle and scored. Nine minutes later van Cleef penetrated and scored again. Scarcely more than a minute later, Iowa gained a penalty corner. Shot was blocked but led to another. Zonnenberg injected to van Aalsum ,who passed to Milly Short, who scored. Iowa was ahead 3-0. Hawk fans were jumping up and down and I was exchanging high-fives with Rachel Herbine’s parents. Yet Iowa wasn’t finished for the quarter. With a minute and a half to go, Zonnenberg carried the ball along the backline and scored. It was the best quarter of hockey I had ever seen Iowa play. 

At the start of the second quarter, Louisville changed goalkeepers and both teams seemed level. But about halfway into the quarter, Iowa’s Niamh de Jonh won a PC. Van Aalsum’s shot was blocked but a huge mess in the “ugly zone”—what goalkeepers call the area directly in front of the goal—ensued and out of the tangle of sticks and legs Iowa was awarded a penalty stroke which van Aalsum put away with her usual aplomb. Iowa finished the half with five goals to nil and the Hawk fans were floating on air. Gia Whalen’s mother asked me what I thought and I said I thought it was the best half I had ever seen Iowa play against anyone. I was perfectly placed to watch our defender Milly Short in action, seated between the midfield and 23 metre line. When she was in possession near the touchline, I was inline with her view towards the Louisville goal and could watch as the Cardinal players approached to attempt a tackle. At the last fraction of a second, Milly would spot the lane and fire a quick pass up the field to a Hawkeye near the shooting. 

In the second half, the Cardinals “had a mountain to climb” (as the international hockey commentators label a team far behind). But they would not give up. Ten seconds into the match Grace Potter penetrated the Iowa circle and won a penalty corner and Annabel Sep scored with a drag flick. And from then the ambiance of the match utterly changed. All the momentum seemed to flow to the Cards. In scarcely more than a minute they had another penalty corner. A shot by Sep was saved by Iowa’s Magnotta. A minute later, another penalty corner and another Magnotta save. Four minutes in, Magnotta prevented a field goal by Potter. Then Potter got a green card and was sent to the “naughty step”; I don’t like to see even opposition players get cards (unless the foul was deliberate) but have to confess I breathed a sigh of relief. It felt now like the Hawks were playing in slow motion, like those dreams where you feel you want to run and can barely move. Such a contrast to the first half when the Hawks’ timing was spot-on. 

Strangely, when I watched the match replayed online, Iowa did not look so outclassed as they had felt to me pitchside. Mid-quarter the Hawks revived and got a penalty corner but failed to score. But before the quarter ended, the Iowa attack secured a penalty stroke. It would be van Aalsum’s second and I expected a sure thing. But Louisville’s goalie Cicuto read the shot perfectly and blocked it. With penalty strokes, viewing later online with the camera behind the goal, one  learns a lot. The striker will have decided before addressing the ball  where she intends the stroke to go. The goalkeeper will be extending her arms and trying to look as big as possible, but she cannot cover the entire goal. (I would like to get in touch with Grace MacGuire, Iowa’s former goalkeeper, who was at the match because she now lives in Louisville to ask how a goalkeeper prepares.) The hardest areas to cover are the lower right corner and the upper left. Watching the replay, I realized Cicuto could tellfrom van Aalsum’s body movements that she was aiming at the goalie’s lower right and Cicuto blocked it.( An international player like Yiibbi Jansen can fake her movements to fool the goalie but many NCAA players give away where they are aiming the ball.) 

In the final quarter Louisville still dominated. Iowa couldn’t keep them out of their circle, but Mia Magnotta continued to hold them scoreless. The final statistics tell a revealing lesson. Louisville had no shots in the first half and ten in the second. Iowa ten in the first half with five goals, but four in the second and none. It seemed as if two entirely different matches had been played, with Iowa winning the first 5-nil and Louisville the second 1-0. Fortunately, the rules don’t work that way; early or late, all goals count the same. 

Despite the anticlimactic finish, all of us Hawkeye fans left happy, seeing our team accomplish what they needed to do. In statistics there is a concept called “reversion to the mean” and I think that is what we saw in that match. And even in the second half where they were consistently outplayed, the Hawks had held Louisville to one goal thanks to a brilliant goalkeeper, And Louisville’s reserve goalie had performed very well herself. So, according to which poll you followed, Iowa was currently ranked eighth or eleventh. Soon we would see how Iowa would perform against conference rivals in the Big Ten, where competition was just beginning. Northwestern was ranked number one, then Michigan, after that a pile-up of Maryland, Iowa, Ohio State, Rutgers and Penn State, with no obvious clues how they would sort themselves out.