IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 15th-ranked University of Iowa field hockey team won its season opener over No. 20 Wake Forest, 5-4.
“I am very pleased with the result,” said head coach Lisa Cellucci. “That’s a fantastic Wake Forest team. They have some very dangerous players, very dangerous attack, but I was so proud of our resilience. That’s what we talked about. Every time we got down, we fought back in, and then we were able to finally get ahead. There were some fantastic goals scored by these Hawkeyes. What a way to grind out a first win.”
The Hawkeyes and Demon Deacons played a scoring filled first half, with Iowa’s Dionne Van Aalsum striking first at the 0:59 mark, assisted by Fréderique van Cleef to take an early lead. Wake Forest answered back with their own goal two minutes later to tie it up.
Wake Forest took the lead at the end of the first quarter, scoring at 11:46 off of a penalty corner.
Despite a two-point deficit after a Wake Forest goal at 16:36 in the second quarter, Iowa bounced back scoring three times in a six-minute span with three different players to take a 4-3 lead. Junior Tess Reed and van Cleef notched their first goals of the season, while Van Aalsum added her second.
The Deacons finished out the second with a penalty corner goal at 29:34, tying it back up at 2-2 before halftime.
With a scoreless third and most of the fourth, the Hawkeyes were able to close out the game with an unassisted goal by freshman Felicia Zonnenberg, her first of the season, at 58:11.
OF NOTE…
- Freshmen Jordan Byers, Niamh de Jong, Peyton Shellaway, and Felicia Zonnenberg made their collegiate debuts.
- Iowa defeated Wake Forest for the sixth consecutive year in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
- The Hawkeyes have won eight straight season openers.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes return to action Sunday, facing second-ranked North Carolina at 1 p.m. (CT) at Grant Field in Iowa City, Iowa.