The
Ohio State Buckeyes finished the season tenth in the nation in goals against
average and sixth in defensive saves. Iowa was ninth in the country in save
percentage. Northwestern senior Regan Mooney
placed fourth (0.95) and Penn State sophomore Whitney Reddig sixth (0.90) in
assists per game. Ohio State senior Jenn Sciulli finished second (10) in
defensive saves. Ohio state senior Ally Tunitis placed tenth (1.40) in goals
against average. Penn State junior Kelsey Amy finished third (1.20) and Iowa
sophomore Kim Scraper seventh (1.13) in goals per game. Amy also placed fourth
(2.75) in points per game.
After all the regular
season games had been played, the Big Ten had four teams ranked in the coaches’
poll. Penn State topped the list at number seven immediately followed by
Michigan at eighth; Iowa was #12 and Ohio State #15. All four teams received
bids to the NCAA tournament but unfortunately none of them were able to bring a
championship to their schools or the conference. Ohio State lost its opener to
Old Dominion 0-5. Penn State won its first game 1-0 over Northeastern but then fell
to Connecticut 2-3 in the quarterfinals, Michigan won their opener 5-4 over New
Hampshire and then lost to North Carolina 1-5 in the quarterfinals. Iowa fell
to Maryland, 4-2. It should be noted,
however, that Maryland was playing on its home field.
According to
hawkeyesports.com Iowa sophomore Kim Scraper finished the season with 19 goals
and 39 points, the most for a Hawkeye in a single season since former
All-American Lauren
Pfeiffer recorded 20 goals and
44 points in 2008. Another leader in an
individual category for the Hawkeyes was Scraper’s sophomore classmate Marike
Stribos who led the team with seven assists. Junior Kathleen McGraw led team in
all goalkeeping stats as she started all 20 contests and played 97% of the
minutes in goal.
The Hawkeyes will
graduate just one player, Becca Spengler, this year. The tournament experience should prove useful
for the 2012 squad which will boast six seniors and six juniors on what is
usually an 18-woman roster. For those of you with less than amazing math
skills, 6+6=12 and 12 of 18 is 2/3 or 66%. That is of course assuming all the
other players return. I wrote all that to be able to write this: expectations
should be high for 2012 for the Big Ten and the University of Iowa when it
comes to field hockey.