CORALVILLE, Iowa — University of Iowa volleyball fell to Grand Canyon, 3-0, Sunday evening inside Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.

Nataly Moravec led the way for the Hawkeyes with 9 kills, and Kaia Mateo hit at a clip of .667. Delaney McSweeney also had a noteworthy hitting percentage of .455. Bailey Ortega registered 14 assists for the Hawkeyes.

HOW IT HAPPENED

SET 1 (GCU, 25-18): The match started off with a bang when Gabby Deery and Ortega paired up for a Hawkeye kill. Iowa took advantage of a GCU error, and McSweeney added a kill to the board. The set was tight early, tying at three, four, and five. After a few kills by the Lopes, Michelle Urquhart came through swinging from the back row to register a kill. The Lopes pulled ahead, but Iowa closed the spread to three with a kill and an ace by Mateo. Three consecutive kills by Moravec sent GCU into a timeout. Iowa continued to fight but couldn’t catch up, and the Lopes took the set.

SET 2 (GCU, 25-14): GCU clinched the first point, but Iowa quickly responded with a kill by Caitlan Buettner, assisted by Ortega. The Hawkeyes trailed closely behind early in the set, but climbed back up with a kill by Mateo. Iowa posted a couple of points to the board thanks to a kill by Anna Davis and a GCU error. Ortega assisted two consecutive kills, the first by Moravec and the second by McSweeney. The Lopes held the lead, but Ortega shortened the spread with a kill. Iowa posted a point to the board after an attack error by GCU. Mateo assisted Moravec for a successful attack, but the Lopes kept the lead and finished the set on top.

SET 3 (GCU, 25-16): Iowa opened the match strong with a McSweeney kill, assisted by Ortega. Audrey Black swung hard from the right side and recorded a kill. The set remained close in the beginning, tying four times. The Hawkeyes broke the tie and took the lead after a Moravec kill. Iowa followed closely behind GCU, and closed the spread to a tie after a kill by McSweeney. The Lopes took the lead again, but Urquhart posted a kill and Iowa took the ball back. Freshman Rosa Vesty added a kill to the books, lessening the spread to two. Caitlan Buettner broke the GCU scoring run with back-to-back outside kills. The Hawkeyes fell short, and GCU took the set and the match.

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes travel to Syracuse, New York to play on Friday, Sept. 9 against Syracuse in the Syracuse Invitational. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on B1G+.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State (3-4-1) fell to undefeated Kentucky (6-0-1) on a cloudy Sunday afternoon by a score of 3-0 at the Cyclone Soccer Complex.

The Wildcats played spoiler for Iowa State’s senior day which recognized eight Cyclones – Kristin Boos, Maddie Brant, Alex Campana, Olivia Edwards, Mira Emma, Abigail Miller, Salomé Prat and Hanna Reid – for their contributions to the program.

Kentucky got the ball rolling midway through the first half, scoring in the 23rd minute as Úlfa Úlfarsdóttir converted her second goal of the season off a Tanner Strickland pass to take a 1-0 advantage.

Following Iowa State’s kickoff, UK was able to wrestle control of the ball back and head down the field on a new attack. Moments after securing an assist, Strickland scored her first goal of the season in the 25th minute to put Kentucky up two-nil.

Iowa State would stabilize the defensive, heading into the half down 2-0.

The second half played a bit slower than the first as neither team was able to get much going on the offensive.

Kentucky broke through in the 74^th minute, tallying its third goal of the contest off Payton Robertson’s first goal of the year off a Maddie Eastman assist.

The Wildcats outshot ISU 12-4 on the afternoon and held the corner kick advantage 10-1.

Fannon’s Thoughts 

“We’ve got to do a better job in the corners, to not give away so many of them. I think we haven’t done well in high-wide areas and sticking to our game model in those situations. We’ll fix those in training and I feel we’ll have better success.”

Goals 

Iowa State: N/A

Kentucky: Úlfa Úlfarsdóttir (23’), Tanner Strickland (25’), Payton Robertson (74’)

Assists

Iowa State: N/A

Kentucky: Tanner Strickland, Sophia Caruso, Maddie Eastman

Up Next 

Following its non-conference finale, Iowa State will turn its attention to Big 12 play. The Cyclones will be back in action next Thursday, Sept. 14, when they welcome Oklahoma State to the Cyclone Soccer Complex. Thursday’s matchup is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. and will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Three first quarter goals led the top-ranked University of Iowa field hockey team to a 5-1 victory over UMass Lowell on Sunday afternoon at Grant Field.

The No. 1 Hawkeyes continue play at home hosting Vermont at 3 p.m. on September 15.

FAIRFAX, Va. – University of Iowa women’s soccer downed George Mason, 3-0, on Sunday in the non-conference finale. With the road shutout, Iowa improves to 6-0-1 overall heading into Big Ten Conference play.

The Hawkeyes were on the attack all afternoon, finishing with 25 shots to match a season-high total set against FGCU on Aug. 17 to start the year.

Iowa sent four shots in the first ten minutes of play. The last of those resulted in an Elle Otto score in the box, assisted by sophomore Morgan Lietz and junior Kenzie Roling. Otto’s three goals this season are an Iowa-best. Roling’s four assists also lead the team through seven contests.

The second goal came in the 37th minute when junior Delaney Holtey sent a long cross sweeping through the Patriot transition defense. It found senior captain Maggie Johnston in the box, who gave it one more nudge to set up senior Kelli McGroarty for her first goal of the season.

Also finding the net for the first time this season was fifth-year defender Samantha Cary, who drilled a header the 78^th minute to slam the door closed. Freshman Keira Smyser earned the assisted on a high-arcing, cross-field pass that went up and over the George Mason defenders in the box.

Goalkeeper Macy Enneking nabbed one save en route to Iowa’s sixth clean sheet this season. The Hawkeye defense allowed George Mason only one shot.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH DAVE DIIANNI

“Today was a good ending to a long trip. Closing the book on our non-conference schedule, having played a lot of players today, getting young players experience, maintaining another shutout and scoring the goals needed to win.

We know it wasn’t the prettiest game by us offensively. Composure, intent and execution have to be better moving forward in the box, but finishing undefeated in the non-conference is a good springboard to Big Ten play.”

HAWKEYE NOTABLES

• With 15 career clean sheets, Macy Enneking now ties Emily Moran ’11 at third in program history for career shutouts.
• The Hawkeyes have held opponents to two shots or fewer in nine of 14 halves played this season. Iowa’s defense has allowed just one goal in 2023.
• Iowa outshot George Mason 25-1. Iowa holds a sizeable advantage in shots taken (113-39) and shots on goal (50-17) against its opponents this season.
• Sunday was the first meeting between Iowa and George Mason in women’s soccer.
• 2 for the Money: The Hawkeyes are undefeated in their last 42 games when scoring two goals or more. Since the start of the 2018 season, Iowa has a record of 39-0-3 when scoring two goals or more. That includes a 4-0-0 record this season, 4-0-2 record in 2022, 9-0 in 2021, 2-0 in 2020, 13-0-1 in 2019 and 5-0 in 2018. The Hawkeyes won their final two games in 2017 when scoring two-plus goals. The last time Iowa lost a game while netting at least two goals was Oct. 1, 2017, at Michigan State (L, 3-2).
• 90 Tracker: No Hawkeye position player logged 90 minutes against George Mason. Twenty-one Iowa players subbed in on Sunday. Cary (5), Freshman Millie Greer (4), Johnston (2) and senior Rielee Fetty (2) have each played the entirety of at least one game for the Hawkeyes this season.
  

UP NEXT

Iowa opens the Big Ten Conference slate at home on Sept. 17 vs. Illinois. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at the University of Iowa Soccer Complex.