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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa women’s soccer team fell 1-0 to No. 7 Penn State in its Big Ten Conference opener Friday night at the Iowa Soccer Complex.
The Hawkeyes looked strong in the first half, taking four shots against a Penn State defense that hasn’t allowed any goals in Big Ten action. Iowa had four quality chances, including an opportunity in the fifth minute when sophomore Olivia Fiegel had a 1-v.-1, but her shot was stopped by goalkeeper Rose Chandler.
The game was scoreless until late in the match when Penn State’s Salina Williford placed a header just over sophomore keeper Claire Grave’s head to put the Nittany Lions up 1-0.
QUOTING HEAD COACH DAVE DIIANNI
“Penn State is a very good team so you’re going to get a lot of moments where you get stretched out. They did it at times in the first half and I thought we corrected and we didn’t defend our left side very well as the game went on. If this team is going to compete like this for the rest of the Big Ten season, we’re going to win a decent amount of games.”
On scoring opportunities
“We created arguably the four best chances of the game. You have to control your fate a little bit. Five minutes into the game Olivia gets that chance and then we get three more really good chances. You have to do that against Penn State and unfortunately, we gave them good chance. They’re a good team and they punched us for it.”
Looking toward Ohio State
“The message here is that they performed pretty well. They competed and worked hard, which is what we were looking for opening up Big Ten play. At the end of the day, we need to get better at finishing our chances and we’re creating them. We’re going to create them against anyone in the Big Ten, but we’ve got to be able to put the game away.
UP NEXT
Iowa continues Big Ten competition, hosting Ohio State on Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission is free.
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