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IOWA CITY, IOWA — Another day, another hat trick. This time, junior Sophie Sunderland‘s first-half hat trick propelled the University of Iowa field hockey team to a 7-1 win over Ball State on Sunday afternoon at Grant Field.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hawkeyes wasted no time finding the scoreboard when Sunderland scored her first goal two and a half minutes into the game off a deflection from Katie Birch. Eight minutes later on the same type of play, Sunderland scored her second goal after the ball deflected of her stick, again from Birch.
Iowa’s scoring had just begun. In the next 10 minutes, Iowa rattled off seven shots, converting on four of them. In that span, senior Makenna Grewe found the back of the net, for her second goal in as many days. Next, junior Ryley Miller scored her first goal of the season to put the Hawkeyes up 4-0 after 18 and a half minutes of play. Then, Sunderland finished off her first career hat trick on a rebound goal after a shot by freshman Anthe Nijziel was saved by Ball State’s goalkeeper. Junior Isabella Solaroli padded Iowa’s lead when she tapped in a goal off a pass from freshman Makenna Maguire. Iowa led 6-1 at halftime.
A 52-minute weather delay due to lightning occurred in between the halves. Play eventually resumed and freshman Leah Zellner scored her first goal as a Hawkeye late in the second half. She was an unassisted.
“The ball was passed through a few defenders on the right side. I received it and pulled right and hit the ball with my strong side,” Zellner said. “It was exciting, especially to score it on Grant Field.”
QUOTING COACH CELLUCCI
“It was great to put ad many goals as we did on this board this weekend. That has been our emphasis — to try and clean up our final third, and I think we did that. Going forward, we have to have a much higher rate of possession and play to our standard. That’s the message we gave to the team today because our next couple weekends are going to be very tough. We know what’s ahead of us.”
HAWKEYE NOTABLES
- This weekend marks the third time in Coach Cellucci’s five-year head coaching career that Iowa has scored at least six goals in back-to-back games.
- Eleven of Iowa’s 12 shot in the first 21:47 of play were on goal.
- The Hawkeyes converted three of their first four penalty corners for goal in the first 15 minutes of play.
- Six of Iowa’s seven goals were assisted on.
- Five different Hawkeyes scored goals today.
- Sophie Sunderland’s first career hat trick was Iowa’s second of the year, after Katie Birch’s against Dartmouth on Friday.
- Freshman Leah Zellner scored her first goal as a Hawkeye with four minutes remaining in the game.
- Junior goalkeeper Leslie Speight made five saves, while allowing only one goal.
- Four Hawkeyes — Sunderland, Katie Birch, Maddy Murphy, and Makenna Grewe — have at least two goals on the season. Murphy leads the team in points (12) after one assist today.
- The Hawkeyes are averaging 17 shots per game with a .706 (48-of-68) shot on goal percentage.
UP NEXT
Next weekend, Iowa travels to New Hampshire to play Providence on Sept. 8 and New Hampshire on Sept. 9. Both games begin at 1 p.m. (CT).
