Iowa Olympic Sports: Volleyball, soccer win Big Ten games, field hockey splits

Well, now that Iowa football is officially a major disappointment, it’s time to turn our concerns to the Olympic sports that are here to ease our worries about the state of Gary Barta’s athletic department.

Or maybe not — I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, rather provide you with updates of the Hawkeye sports that aren’t in as bad a shape as their football counterparts.

Volleyball

And just like that, the Hawkeye volleyball team has won its last two matches by a combined score of 6-0. Bond Shymansky’s crew welcomed Maryland into Carver last Wednesday, shutting the Terps out with the help of 12 kills from junior Jess Janota.

Next up was a Saturday night match with Northwestern, giving he Hawks one victory over the ‘Cats this weekend, which is at least somewhat reassuring. Depending how you want to look at it (because I didn’t catch the match, we’ll frame it like Iowa forced this), the Hawks caused Northwestern to have a dismal .169 hitting percentage. Iowa’s was quite different, clocking in at .413.

The Hawkeyes are now 2-2 in conference with a 12-4 mark overall. Purdue and Indiana are in town Friday and Saturday — those contests begin at 7 p.m.

Soccer

The Hawks only had one game this weekend, taking on Purdue Friday evening and winning by a score of 1-0. Devin Burns put one home 2:13 into the game, and the Hawkeyes held on from there thanks to great defense and five saves from keeper Claire Graves.

It was a nice first conference win for the Hawkeyes (7-6, 1-4 Big Ten), who dug themselves a hole in the early league season. Dave DiIanni’s bunch has six games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament begins at the end of the month. Seeding matters folks, so wins at Minnesota Thursday and Wisconsin Sunday would be a good way to gain some momentum heading into the home stretch.

Those matches are at 7 and 1 p.m., respectively.

Field Hockey

Head coach Lisa Cellucci and company were on the road over the weekend, starting in Bloomington Friday with a 2-1 win over the Hoosiers. Senior Sophie Plasteras put the 18th-ranked Hawks up 1-0 in the second, with Katie Birch netting the GWG roughly 12 minutes after Indiana’s equalizer at the 60-minute mark.

Sunday’s contest at Louisville didn’t have the good fortune of the game before. Iowa managed only five shots — four of which came after the intermission — en route to a 2-0 loss to the Cardinals. This was no upset as Louisville came into the game as the No. 7 team in the country, but Iowa’s lack of success against ranked teams (Wake Forest is the only ranked win, by my count) is cause for concern of the squad’s postseason hopes.

Central Michigan and UC Davis are in town Friday and Sunday before a trip to face No. 6 Northwestern and No. 9 Michigan the following weekend.