Olympic Sports wrap up: Gold team wins World Series, soccer & volleyball split, field hockey struggles

Iowa baseball had its annual Black and Gold World Series last weekend, which was basically the last live action they’ll get until the spring.

It’s mostly for fun. Here were the rosters:

The Black squad had five pitchers combine for a no-hitter and a 3-2 win, though they did issue 10 walks. Nick Allgeyer got the start for the Black team and lasted four innings, allowing just one hit and picking up five strikeouts. Redshirt freshman Connor Lindaman went 2-3 with a double and two RBI.

Tyler Cropley helped the Gold Team win the the second game of the series 7-6 with a 10th inning sacrifice fly. Grant Judkins had an excellent game, going 4-of-5 with two doubles and a single RBI.

The Gold team took game three 2-0 in three innings, which I’m assuming was cut short due to weather.

Now it’s to the offseason. This is a squad that lost a whole bunch last year, but once again it seems like Rick Heller is going to have this team in a good place come spring. I’m excited about Iowa baseball and saying that would have been almost unthinkable even a couple years ago. It’s a good place to be.

"We made steady improvement in all areas," Heller said to Hawkeye Sports in a piece detailing the wild offseason. "This is going to be a different team (in 2018). There is no Jake Adams to hit 30 home runs and we lost Mason McCoy, Nick Gallagher, C.J. Eldred, and Ryan Erickson. "A lot of guys are going to have to step up. We have a lot of talented kids, but they're going to have to do a good job moving into their new roles."

Iowa soccer inches closer to the postseason

The Hawkeyes split a trip to Indiana, falling to the Hoosiers 2-1 and beating Purdue 2-1.

They also tied Nebraska 0-0 on Wednesday evening.

They’re two points short of trip to the Big Ten tournament with Wisconsin and Illinois left on the slate. It would seem like there’s a pretty good chance they’ll be able to get in.

“I continue to be impressed with this team’s ability to show resiliency along this tough Big Ten season,” head coach Dave DiIanni said to the Daily Iowan. “After [Oct. 12], they were disappointed not to have taken advantage of a good performance, but [Sunday] they were determined not to leave Indiana without points. We are very determined to get into the Big Ten Tournament and extend this season together.”

Two of Iowa’s last three games are at home, where they’re 5-4-1 this year. The Hawkeyes currently sit at 8-6-2 with a 3-4-2 record in Big Ten play.

Volleyball picks up one, has two home games this weekend.

Iowa started off its week strong, picking up a four set 26-24, 25-19, 17-25, 25-14 win over Indiana on Oct. 11.

Claire Sheehan has 15 kills and five blocks for the Hawkeyes and .344 attack percentage. Iowa has now won six-straight games against the Hoosiers.

"Our group got up early in the third and I think we put it on cruise control too quickly. That's on us. We have to have fortitude and focus when we are on the road, especially in the Big Ten,” head coach Bond Shymansky said to Hawkeye Sports. “We got a little soft there mentally, but we really bounced back with a clean, effective, efficient game in the fourth set. I'm proud of the way our group battled on to finish the match."

Iowa then went on the road again Saturday and fell in straight sets to No. 6 Minnesota.

The Hawkeyes are now 14-7 on the year and 3-5 in Big Ten play with 12 conference games to go. Iowa has two winnable ones this weekend when they host Illinois and Northwestern.

Seems like as good of a time as any to catch a bit of Hawkeye volleyball.

Field hockey continues Big Ten struggles

Iowa dropped two close games at home last weekend to No. 9 Northwestern and No. 3 Michigan.

The Hawkeyes fell to the Wildcats 5-4 on Friday before losing 3-2 to the Wolverines on Sunday. Iowa is now 5-10 on the year and just 1-5 in conference play. Iowa is still ranked No. 25 in the country.

“We are getting better, but we are giving up too many goals with numbers. We need to have a little more discipline in our defensive third,” Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci said to Hawkeye Sports after the Michigan loss. “Other than that, we played a great 50 minutes. Our backs are against the wall now. We need to get some wins to extend our season, and we really picked up the urgency today.”

Iowa will have some representation at the 2017 Victory Sports Tour/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division I Senior Game. That will be held Nov. 17 in Louisville and takes 50 of the best seniors from across the country.

The Hawkeyes end their regular season with a trip to East Lansing on Friday and a home game against Ohio State on Sunday.

Men’s cross wins Bradley Pink, women’s golf competes in N.C.

The Iowa men’s and women’s cross country teams duked it out at the Bradley Pink Classic in Illinois over the weekend.

The men finished first (of 27 teams) and Nathan Mylenek was first overall with a 24:26.2. That is... huge. Iowa finished in front of eight regionally ranked opponents: (No. 7 Nebraska (Midwest), No. 8 Missouri (Midwest), No. 11 Oakland (Great Lakes) No. 12 Bradley (Midwest), No. 13 Wichita State (Midwest), No. 14 Kansas State (Midwest), No. 14 Marquette (Great Lakes), and No. 15 Saint Louis (Midwest.)

Daniel Soto and Bailey Hesse-Withbroe also finished in the top-20 individually for the Hawkeyes.

"It was exciting to see the Hawkeyes battling up front. The men were led by Nate (Mylenek) again. That front runner is crucial. He gets us off to a good start, but it still takes five for the team score,” Iowa head coach Randy Hasenbank said to Hawkeye Sports. “Dan Soto and Bailey are competing at a high level and with confidence. Our four and five were Luke and Brandon and they continue to impress me. Our goal was to come here and battle for a title. While it's only a regular season meet, we still have a lot of young guys that need to learn to compete. They did that today.

Andrea Shine finished second overall in the women’s 6K race with a personal best of 20:47.3.

Good work, all.

The Iowa women’s golf team also competed over the weekend, finishing 18th at the Ruth Chris Tar Heel Invitational. Iowa head coach Megan Menzel was quite clear in how she felt about the performance.

"It was a really tough day for our team. We did not finish, and it is disappointing. I take full credit for our poor performance this week,” Menzel said to Hawkeye Sports. “We had three weeks to prepare and for whatever reason we were not ready. As a coach, I need to do a better job to get them ready. This team is better than this, and we need to bounce back and finish the fall with a strong showing in Atlanta."

To be fair, it was a strong field, including 12 top-18 teams. Iowa’s scorecard: