Iowa Olympic Sports Roundup: The same as last time

Hey there, everyone. For the first time since we’ve been publishing these super useful non-revenue sport wrap ups, the exact same thing happened as it did the week before. The sports you’d expect to split — field hockey and volleyball — split, while the sport you’d expect to have a tough go of things — soccer — had a tough go of things.

The only difference was, of course, the level of competition. Let’s get after it, shall we?

Field Hockey

The Hawkeyes picked up quite possibly their best win of the season Friday afternoon in Evanston against No. 9 Northwestern, closing out a 2-1 victory over the ‘Cats via a Sophie Sunderland goal 1:27 into overtime. Freshman/potential future of the team Katie Birch picked up her 11th goal of the season in the match.

Sunday wasn’t as kind to Iowa, as it lost 2-1 to No. 12 Michigan in Ann Arbor, dropping its record to 10-6 overall with a 2-4 mark in conference. As has been a theme with this squad since I found out the sport existed my freshman year in Iowa City, the Hawks have seemingly been able to hang around, but never make the jump to be the Big Ten’s best.

Only two games are left on the schedule until the conference tournament (starts Nov. 3), and a victory over Michigan State Friday would be huge momentum and seeding-wise. Sparty is 3-3. So yeah, a win would be great.

Volleyball

The Hawkeye volleyball squad went to Maryland and shut out the Terps Friday night 3-0 and got shut out by Ohio State in Columbus almost exactly 24 hours later, 3-0. Meghan Buzzerio led the way again for the Hawks with 12 kills in the win, and Reghan Coyle’s 9 led in the loss.

This has been the best start to a season in recent memory for the volleyball Hawkeyes, with this weekend’s slate of games likely playing a huge role in determining if that success will continue as the season progresses.

Iowa gets Minnesota and Wisconsin at home Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Gophers are the Big Ten’s fourth-place team at 6-2, with the Badgers sitting a game ahead in third place. Again, wins would be great here.

Soccer

At some point — and I don’t know what point that will be — this team might get better. Hopefully, although the recent results haven’t given Iowa fans much hope that will be the case.

The Hawkeyes are losers of four straight and nine of their last 10, registering three goals in that stretch. Ugh.

Dave DiIanni might be coaching for his job at this point. Emphasis on might be, because who knows what Gary Barta’s philosophy is with coaches not named Kirk Ferentz, Fran McCaffery, Tom Brands, and Lisa Bluder. Either way, there are two games left on the schedule, the next being Friday at Maryland. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m.

Cross Country

The Hawkeyes ran at the Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday, and the results weren’t pretty. The Iowa men and women finished 35th and 38th overall, respectively. This quote from head coach Randy Hasenbank does the weekend more justice than I’m able to.

Via hawkeyesports.com:

"Well, we are not happy with the finish on either side. We had a number of young runners on both sides and they need experience in meets of this size. Their confidence needs to improve as well. We clearly need front runners in a meet like this. A lot to work on both sides between now and Big Tens."

Big Tens are Sunday, Oct. 30 in Minneapolis.