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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The No. 8 University of Iowa field hockey team defeated Central Michigan, 11-0, in its home opener on Friday at Grant Field. The Hawkeyes improve to 2-1.
“This was total team effort,” head coach Lisa Cellucci said. “You can see that we have a lot of different people that can score goals, and that was a true highlight today. I’m proud of their effort, their determination to stay with it in the final third, and the fact that we were able to [score] from so many different people.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Nine Hawkeyes scored in the home opener against Central Michigan. Iowa matched the 11-0 score from the last time the team faced the Chippewas in 2016 — the most goals Iowa has scored in a single game since. The victory marked Iowa’s twelfth win in the series, leading Central Michigan 12-0 all-time.
Iowa opened the first period with a goal from sophomore Lokke Stribos (7:55). Sophomore Makenna Maguire (11:35) followed with Iowa’s next goal from an outside circle tip, ending the first quarter with a score of 2-0.
Junior Ellie Holley started second period scoring with a near cage goal in the 20th minute. Junior Maddy Murphy tallied the next goal in the 23rd minute. Seniors Sophie Sunderland (27:56) and Katie Birch (29:26) both recorded goals to end the second period, leading 6-0 at halftime.
Scoring opened quickly in the third period with a goal in the 31st minute from sophomore Leah Zellner. Senior Ryley Miller (35:32) and sophomore Anthe Nijziel (39:34) would bank Iowa’s eighth and ninth goals in succession, leading the Chippewas 9-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
Sunderland rounded out the home opener and recorded the season’s first hat trick in the 51st and 55th minute, scoring Iowa’s final two goals of the match.
ASSIST BREAKDOWN
Four different Hawkeyes recorded assists, including Katie Birch, Maddy Murphy, Makenna Maguire, and Meghan Conroy.
Birch led the team in assists, earning five on the day. She assisted goals from Stribos, Maguire, Holley, Nijziel and Sunderland. Murphy also assisted on the goals by Stribos and Nijziel.
Maguire (23:39) and Conroy (35:32) both notched assists individually in the second and third periods.
HEARING FROM HEAD COACH LISA CELLUCCI
“Columbia is a great opponent. We have never faced them as a program,” Cellucci said. “Tomorrow will be their first game [of the season]. We’ll get a chance to watch them play. We’ll need to stick to our game plan and what we do well; That is our ball speed, moving the ball, building our attack, and finishing. That will be the focus again tomorrow at practice.”
HEARING FROM SENIOR SOPHIE SUNDERLAND
“It is exciting when nine different players put the ball away in the net. That’s just through our possession passing across the field, and trusting one another throughout the whole 60 minutes of play. When I got the ball in front of the keeper, my job is to put it away, and I had a great assist from Katie Birch. It’s just a contribution from all over the field. We have to carry over everything that we did today, and learn from it as well.”
HEARING FROM SENIOR KATIE BIRCH
“Today, we made a massive emphasis on not allowing them in our 25. We just wanted to protect home field, and we wanted them to have no opportunity to score on us. We really excelled with that strategy and tried to keep them above our 25, and I think they got in twice. We had a lot of goal scorers today. It’s really exciting for young girls coming out and getting goals. Finishing is something that we focused on this week in practice, and we did it today. We just have to keep building on that and keep going forward.”
NOTABLES
Sunderland leads the team in goals with four on the season. Maddy Murphy and Sofie Stribos are tied for second with two apiece.
Makenna Maguire, Anthe Nijziel, Ryley Miller, Leah Zellner, Katie Birch, Ellie Holley, and Lokke Stribos all recorded their first goals of the season.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes return to Grant Field on Sunday to face Columbia at 1 p.m. (CT). This will be the first meeting in program history between the two teams. Admission is free.
