Oct. 28, 2015
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa women’s soccer team dropped its season finale against No. 9 Rutgers, 2-0, on Wednesday night at the Iowa Soccer Complex.
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“We knew Rutgers, being No. 4 in the RPI, was going to be a difficult game for us,” said head coach Dave DiIanni. “Our kids fought and they recovered off that first goal. For the better part of the 90 minutes they were very organized, created opportunities and made it very difficult for Rutgers to score and put us away.”
Rutgers got on the board in the first two minutes of the game when Hayley Katkowski headed the ball into the net off a corner kick. Samantha Valliant and Brianne Reed were credited with the assists on the play. The Scarlet Knights tallied their second goal at the 57-minute mark when Madison Tiernan received a pass from Valliant and fired one past senior goalkeeper Hannah Clark.
Iowa had an opportunity to cut the deficit late in the second half when junior Tory Harman fired a shot at the Rutgers goal, but Casey Murphy made the save — one of three in the contest.
The Scarlet Knights finished with a 28-5 edge in shots for the game with 12 being on goal. Clark totaled 10 saves in 90 minutes of action.
“I told them not to get used to losing,” said DiIanni. “It’s a bad habit and it is not what we are about. This offseason we are going to work hard to turn that around. We had a lot of people that got a lot of minutes and great experience. I am looking forward to seeing how they develop and push themselves to the next level in the offseason.
“If we can create and keep the culture of hard work, unity, and working for one another, we will get better offensively. If we can keep that foundation, which we have had for the duration of the season, good things will happen for us.”
