Iowa Dominates SEMO, Improves to 5-0

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa women’s soccer team earned a dominate, 4-0, win over Southeast Missouri State on Sunday morning at the Iowa Soccer Complex. With the shutout victory, Iowa improves to 5-0, the program’s best start since the 2019 season.

Freshman Sofia Bush got things going in the first minute of play, capitalizing on action in the box to drill her first career goal.

The Hawkeyes cooked in the second half. Seventh-year player Josie Durr drilled a penalty kick in the 46^th minute to widen the lead.

In the 65^th minute, junior Kenzie Roling hit freshman Sophie Kincaid racing past Redhawk defenders for a perfectly timed score to put Iowa up, 3-nil. That goal was also a career first for the Hawkeye rookie.

Five minutes later, Roling struck again, this time creating her own look in transition to notch her second goal of the season.

The Iowa defense allowed zero shots on Sunday. That smothering effort marks the fourth clean sheet through five matches this fall.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH DAVE DIIANNI
“Winning on Sundays is hard. If you take care of Sundays, particularly at home, you are more likely to have a better season. Everyone wants to play on Thursday under the lights, and Sunday is a grind. We were not super happy with how our first half played out. A little bit slow with the ball and a little bit slow with the re-press. Not as much urgency. I think all those things changed in the second half, so credit to our women.

Winning on Senior Day is obviously always special. We missed Meike Ingles, who was not here. She will hopefully be back with us soon. Winning for Rielee Fetty, Zoë Bessert, who has completed a long two-year grind to get here, Macy Enneking and Sam Cary. In some ways, they have been the foundation of our program. We wanted to celebrate them.

I thought some of our goals were pretty good. Sophie Kincaid gets on the board. That is somebody we have been working to get back in. Great to see Josie Durr with calmness in that moment. Sofia Bush, another freshman, gets a goal in the box. So, I thought our kids played well. I liked their mentality. It was a tough trip for us coming back from Mississippi on Thursday, so we just wanted them to be able to compete.”

HAWKEYE NOTABLES

• Five players were recognized before Sunday’s match for Senior Day: Zoë Bessert, Samantha Cary, Macy Enneking, Rielee Fetty and Meike Ingles.
• Iowa’s 5-0 record marks the best start to a season since 2019, when the Hawkeyes won their first nine games of the year.
• Iowa is the only team in the Big Ten Conference with a 1.000 win percentage.
• The Hawkeyes possessed the ball for 63% of the contest (56:42), taking 15 shots and 10 shots on goal while holding the Redhawks without a shot.

• 2 for the Money: The Hawkeyes are undefeated in their last 41 games when scoring two goals or more. Since the start of the 2018 season, Iowa has a record of 38-0-3 when scoring two goals or more. That includes a 3-0-0 record this season, 4-0-2 record in 2022, 9-0 in 2021, 2-0 in 2020, 13-0-1 in 2019 and 5-0 in 2018. The Hawkeyes won their final two games in 2017 when scoring two-plus goals. The last time Iowa lost a game while netting at least two goals was Oct. 1, 2017, at Michigan State (L, 3-2).
• 90 Tracker: No Iowa players logged 90 minutes in the win over SEMO. Twenty-one Hawkeyes participated in Sunday’s match. Senior Samantha Cary (4), freshman Millie Greer (3), senior Rielee Fetty (2) and senior Maggie Johnston have each played the entirety of at least one match this season for the Hawkeyes.

UP NEXT
Iowa travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, on Sept. 7 to take on the Virginia Cavaliers at Klöckner Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. (CT). The Hawkeyes face George Mason at 11 a.m. on Sept. 10 at George Mason Stadium in Fairfax, Virginia. The Big Ten slate kicks off vs. Illinois on Sept. 17 at the Iowa Soccer Complex.