IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa student-athletes Max Murphy (men’s cross country) and Dionne van Aalsum (field hockey) were named September’s Student-Athletes of the Month, the Iowa Student-Athlete Advisory Committee announced.
Murphy, a junior from Bettendorf, Iowa, broke the school’s 6,000-meter program record by 13 seconds at the Hawkeye Invite on Sept. 1. His season-opening time of 17:57.7 earned him the individual championship and helped the Hawkeye men earn the team title. Murphy also placed 20th out of 147 runners at the Joe Piane Invite in South Bend, Ind. on Sept. 29.
Van Aalsum, a freshman midfielder, tallied and NCAA-best 18 goals and four assists in eight games in September. She also led the NCAA in goals per game (2.25), points (40) and points per game (5.00). The Castricum, Netherlands, native helped Iowa ascend to the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Van Aalsum had multi-goal games in six of seven contests, including four goals in two games (Central Michigan and UMass). Dating back to August, the freshman had eight consecutive multi-goal games to open her career.
She became the first Hawkeye to record a hat trick since Maddy Murphy vs. Indiana in 2019 and the first Hawkeye with four goals in a game since Kim Scraper vs. Brown in 2016. Van Aalsum secured multiple weekly honors, including the NFHCA Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 13 and Sept. 20, Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18, and the Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Sept. 5 and Sept. 11.