In the coming weeks around here at The Pants, you’ll notice football will finally and mercifully stop dominating the news cycle, with winter sports coming into the forefront. That’s also the case with Iowa’s non-revenue sports.
With soccer coming to a close last week and Hawkeye field hockey’s disappointing Big Ten Tournament loss (more in a minute), we’re shifting to what are hopefully greener pastures. Of course, we’re talking volleyball’s home stretch, women’s hoops opener, and swimming. Buckle up.
Volleyball
Let’s start with the most successful team at the University of Iowa. No, seriously. Despite going 1-1 over the weekend with a win over Rutgers and a loss to Penn State, the Hawkeyes are the most successful squad on campus at 18-8 and 8-6 in conference.
Bond Shymansky and Company took care of business against the Scarlet Knights by way of a 3-0 victory and fell to the Nittany Lions by the same score. The team’s currently at sixth in the Big Ten with a huge game at 22-1 Nebraska scheduled tomorrow. If the Hawkeyes win, expect that to be somewhere in a post Thursday. If not, you’ll have to wait a week so we can compile a bunch of other sporting results in one spot.
Oh, and if you go to the rematch in two Saturdays against Nebraska, you can win a moped. Seriously.
Field Hockey
As we mentioned above, the Hawkeye field hockey team’s season came to an end last Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament by a 3-1 loss to Northwestern. Iowa finished the season 12-7 overall with a 4-4 record in conference. After downing the Wildcats on the road earlier in the year, one Sophie Plasteras goal wasn’t enough to get the Hawks over the hump, sadly.
Northwestern lost to Maryland which lost to Penn State in the Big Ten Championship match Saturday. The Terps, Nittany Lions, and Michigan will play in the NCAA Tournament, which starts this week.
Women’s Hoops
Max did a nice job recapping this yesterday, so there’s not a whole lot of sense in pouring over the details here. In case you’re too lazy to click on that link, the Hawkeyes won 61-35 over Lewis University.
Lisa Bluder and her team are scheduled to play Oral Roberts Friday at 6 p.m. Might be a good way to get some positive karma flowing into Saturday night against Michigan. I’ll stop now.
Swimming
And now, we end with the ass whooping anyone sorry enough to enter Marc Long’s thunderdome of a pool experienced over the weekend. The Hawkeye men swept South Dakota, Missouri State, and Purdue, while the women beat the Boilermakers and Coyotoes but fell to the Bears.
In all, Iowa finished with 20 first-place finishes against South Dakota Thursday, and 14 Friday against Purdue and Missouri State. Not bad, Hawks, not bad.
Next on the schedule for the Hawkeyes is the Ohio State Invitational Nov. 18 and 19 in Columbus, which features a hodgepodge of teams from around the country — Iowa, Kentucky, Kenyon College, OSU, Penn State, Utah, and Yale are all scheduled to be there on the men’s side. Add Marshall, Stanford, and Washington State for the women and we have ourselves a party!