The Northwestern field hockey team controlled its own destiny heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

With a surprising Ohio State loss to then last-place Indiana, the Wildcats had a chance to earn the fifth seed in the Big Ten tournament. Instead, No. 14 Iowa scored three unanswered goals in a 3-2 victory over NU on Friday in Iowa City, Iowa. The loss dropped the Cats into a three-way tie for fifth place in the seven-team conference.

The Cats finished the Big Ten season 1-5 for the fourth time in as many years.

“We didn’t get the outcomes we wanted,” coach Kelly McCollum said. “But, our team did take big steps in Big Ten play this weekend.

“Both matches were hard fought battles.”

On Friday the Cats came out strong in the first half behind two Candice Cooper goals and held a 2-0 advantage with five minutes to go in the half. The goals gave Cooper 19 on the season, which is fourth all-time in NU history.

But for the second time in three matches, NU gave up a goal in the last 30 seconds of the first half, making the halftime score 2-1.

Both defenses held the offenses in check until with nine minutes left in the game Iowa (11-6, 5-1) scored on a tip-in goal from a baseline pass, evening the score. Less then three minutes later, the Hawkeyes scored off a penalty corner rebound which was the game-winning goal.

“We fought hard to get chances at the beginning of the game,” McCollum said. “But we struggled to sustain that attack and became cautious in the second half.”

Iowa dominated in the stats column. The Hawkeyes outshot the Cats 22-7 and had four more penalty corners.

Earlier this season NU defeated Iowa 1-0 in Evanston, but the Cats could not generate the same success this time around.

“I think they were both hard fought battles,” McCollum said. “We learned again that every minute and every second of the game matters.”

After the loss, the Cats (7-10, 1-5) came back to face Southwest Missouri State on Saturday.

But the Cats didn’t fare better against Southwest Missouri State (10-7), a team NU had never lost to in 10 previous meetings.

NU lost 1-0 as Southwest Missouri State scored less then three minutes into the game. That was the only offense either team could manage the entire game. NU junior goalkeeper Kelly Augustine did not make a save the entire match.

NU outshot Southwest Missouri State 10-3 and had an 8-1 advantage in penalty corners. The lone penalty corner NU gave up resulted in the only goal of the match.

“We got plenty of opportunities,” McCollum said. “We needed to make them count, but we couldn’t.”

For the first time in five matches, the NU defense gave up less then three goals and seemed to get back to their early season success.

This marked the 10th match this season the Cats defense gave up two goals or less while it was the fourth time NU has been shut out, the first by a non-ranked opponent.

“I don’t think we were challenged (Saturday),” McCollum said. “We pretty much controlled the match, but they finished and we didn’t.

“But I think this team is ready to take the next step, and advance in the Big Ten tournament.”

Reach Abraham Rakov at [email protected].