After 12 minutes of Sunday’s match against Iowa, Northwestern already had scored two goals against goalie Erin MacIsaac.

Defender Katie Wright knocked in a free kick from 30 yards out at 2:13, and midfielder Jeanette Lorme netted her third goal of the season 10 minutes later against the Hawkeyes (1-5-4, 0-0-2 Big Ten).

In Tuesday’s game against Valparaiso, two goals was enough for the win.

On Sunday, it was not.

“Considering how disappointed I am with our performance (Sunday),” coach Jenny Haigh said, “I think it’s great we got out of there with a point.”

Iowa’s Katelyn Quinn cut into the lead before the end of the first half and assisted on the equalizer eight minutes into the second half.

Two overtimes failed to separate the conference foes, and instead of leaving Iowa with a win and three points, the Wildcats (7-2-1, 0-1-1) salvaged one point for a 2-2 tie.

“We didn’t come out with much intensity (in the second half),” defender Laura Janowitsch said. “We sort of played down to their level.”

“Their energy was higher than ours,” she added, “And we came out with a tie, which was disappointing to us.”

Haigh said the team suffered from a lack of focus.

“We certainly had a lot of quality chances,” she said. “We just got confident assuming one of those would go in.”

This letdown came two days after a hard-fought, 3-2 loss to intrastate rival Illinois (6-2-2, 2-0-0).

Illinois scored two goals in the first 14 minutes, and the Cats weren’t able to even the score after cutting the deficit to one in the 54th minute.

Both of NU’s goals came from freshman midfielder Jenny Dunn, her fourth and fifth of the year. The goals tied her with forward Kelsey Hans for the team lead.

“The opportunities just came because of my teammates,” she said.

Lorme assisted on Dunn’s first goal at 38:23, and midfielder Kelly Sitkowski fed Dunn 15 minutes later.

Besides Wright’s free kick against Iowa, all of the Cats’ goals were either scored or assisted on by midfielders.

“We’re really good at controlling the ball and making passes to our forwards,” Dunn said.

The play at midfield helped spur NU’s offense, which fired 38 shots in two games.

Janowitsch said the Cats did a good job responding to a tougher team than any of their non-conference opponents.

“We played really well against Illinois,” she said. “It was a close game that could’ve gone either way.”

NU returns home Friday to play No. 2 Penn State (10-0-0, 2-0-0).

While the Cats only left the weekend’s games with one point, Dunn said they gained experience they can use for the rest of their Big Ten schedule.

“We learned a lot this weekend,” she said. “Against Illinois, we learned we can’t come out slow. They’re the best team we’ve played so far and they came out fast and caught us off-guard. In the Iowa game, we learned we can’t be complacent with a 2-0 lead.”

Putting these lessons into practice may not be enough for the Cats to overcome the Nittany Lions.

Haigh said she thinks near-perfection is required.

“To beat a team like Penn State, we’re going to have to have a great effort all over the field,” she said. “We can’t afford to have an off-day.”

Reach David Morrison at [email protected].