Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Iowa
Field Hockey Loses to Iowa, 3-1
10/24/2001 12:00:00β―AM | Field Hockey
Oct. 24, 2001
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Northwestern field hockey team dropped its 11th game of the year, falling 3-1 to the Iowa Hawkeyes Wednesday afternoon. The game was played at Iowa's Grant Field and did not count in the Big Ten standings.
Iowa's Maria Merluzzi opened up the scoring with 19:47 remaining in the first half collecting a rebound and putting it into the Wildcat goal.
Just more than five minutes later, Iowa's Pattie Gillern deflected Tiffany Fodera's shot from the point to give the Hawkeyes a 2-0 lead. Iowa jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead when Gina Carr scored the third and final Hawkeye goal four minutes later.
Although the score indicated otherwise, statistically NU was level with the Hawkeyes. Iowa only outshot the 'Cats 6-4 at the break and each mustered just two penalty corners.
NU got on the board with 21 minutes remaining in the game when freshman Candice Cooper (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) connected with senior Nicole Smith (Warnbro, Western Australia/Como Senior) to score the first goal of her collegiate career.
Junior Kendra Mesa (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) took over the goalkeeping duties at halftime from sophomore Katie Hall (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) and saved three shots in the final 35 minutes.
The loss drops NU to 2-11 overall. Iowa improves to 11-3.
NU finishes the regular season this Saturday as they take on fifth-ranked Michigan at Lakeside Field. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
