Iowa (1-6-1 B1G) took down Maryland (0-6-2 B1G) in overtime on Sunday, giving the Hawkeyes their first win of the season. The loss leaves the Terps at the bottom of the Big Ten standings after a disappointing performance.
Iowa had the ball in the back of the net early in the 4th minute. However, the Hawkeye’s header off of a free kick was called back for offsides.
Mayland struggled early with Iowa’s counterattacks, and the Hawkeyes got in behind the Terps’ defense in the 19th minute. However, senior Hope Lewandoski got back and made a last-second tackle to prevent an Iowa shot.
Iowa had two huge chances to take the lead in the 28th minute, when freshman forward Maggie Johnston’s shot from a low cross was saved at close range by redshirt freshman Kennedy Tolson, before her follow-up was cleared off the line by sophomore defender Olivia Hicks.
A chippy first half ended scoreless, with both teams combining for only three shots and 15 fouls, 11 of which came from Iowa. Head coach Ray Leone made changes at halftime after a poor first half performance from the Terps.
“We changed to a three front and we had a few chances,” Leone said. “We tried to get outside of them one on one and we did, but the final service just wasn’t in the mix.”
Iowa started the second half on the front foot, and almost capitalized twice after shots from Ingles and Rydberg were both well-saved by Tolson.
Maryland had a great chance in the 72nd minute. Redshirt junior Alyssa Poarch received the ball out wide and beat multiple players, making space for a shot from 20 yards out. However, her strike went just over the bar.
Iowa had a great chance to win the game in regulation after winning a free kick in the 90th minute, but had multiple shots blocked by Maryland defenders before Lewandoski cleared the ball, sending the game to overtime.
Iowa scored the game winning goal in the 98th minute, after Josie Durr scored off a cross to give the Hawkeyes the golden goal. The goal gave Iowa its first win of the season, and the loss saw Maryland fall to 0-6-2.
Despite conceding the golden goal, redshirt freshman Kennedy Tolson notched eight saves, including several from close range, that kept the Terps in the game. Leone was happy with her individual performance.
“She was fantastic,” Leone said. “Read everything, and then those saves that she made, they were well hit balls. She should be very proud of her performance, and even on the goal she did everything humanly possible to keep it from going in. That’s what you got to do in overtime and she did.”
Maryland will look to put this performance behind them, and its next game will be at Wisconsin on Thursday. That marks the first of three consecutive road contests which will end their regular season. Leone hopes they’ll improve in the last three games before the scheduled Big Ten Wild Card Weekend.
“They’re an experienced team, and they know that they didn’t perform at their best,” Leone said. “It’s more about how to put it behind us, and try to not bring whatever bad stuff that’s happened to us to the next game. We really have been playing well against Rutgers and Michigan and we just didn’t do that today. That’s the disappointing thing.”
