It’s bad news for the Wildcats when half of the teams in the Big Ten are ranked in the top 20 — and Northwestern isn’t one of them.
Having to play the No. 1 and No. 17 teams in non-conference play was hard enough. But there are even steeper roads ahead for the NU field hockey team as it travels to Iowa City, Iowa, on Saturday to kick off what is sure to be a torturous Big Ten season.
“There are five or six teams in the Big Ten that are probably in the top 10 in the country in terms of reputation,” NU head coach Marisa Didio said. “And Iowa always fits into that picture.”
After a 5-3 start, Iowa is ranked No. 12.
But the strength of the schedule isn’t scaring any of the Cats after a promising series of non-conference matches in the last month.
NU (4-4) narrowly lost to No. 1 Maryland and played suffocating defense against No. 17 Boston College in a 1-0 overtime loss. The Cats also posted 3-0 and 5-0 shutouts of Southwest Missouri State and St. Louis.
“We get in there and we’re really fired up — we try and gain the advantage early on,” sophomore midfielder Candice Cooper said. “I’m really happy with our progress so far this year.”
Cooper might be the focus of the Hawkeyes’ defense this weekend, as she leads NU with seven goals and one assist — good enough for sixth in the conference scoring standings.
But Didio isn’t planning on placing the weight of the entire team on anyone’s shoulders.
“We’re not looking toward any specific players,” she said. “The main thing we do that makes us successful is playing within our system, to its potential.”
That system is much more defense-oriented this year. And stats show that it is helping the Cats on both sides of the field.
So far this year, NU has outscored opponents 18-11 through eight games. At this point in the 2001 season, the Cats had been outscored 16-7. That’s one possible explanation for why NU has already doubled last year’s win total.
But that doesn’t mean the Cats won’t be sweating a little more in practice in the coming weeks.
“We’re looking at our first month of competition, and we know we can improve on it,” Didio said.
“This game represents the last game of the first month. We’re working on being better (than) in the first month, the first half of (the season) — that’s our focus.”
Whatever Didio chooses to focus on, she had better do it before Saturday.
Iowa is far from a walk in the park, having already toppled No. 3 Wake Forest. Its three losses have come to teams ranked No. 7, No. 11 and No. 14.
The Hawkeyes also have one of the most menacing goalkeepers in the conference in redshirt freshman Barbara Weinberg, who has four shutouts this year.
But the Cats don’t have time to dwell on how good the competition is.
“Consistency is the key to having success in our system,” Didio said. “If we do that, we will approach our full potential.”
NU (4-4) at Iowa (5-3)
1 p.m., Saturday
Grant Field
Iowa City, Iowa
