Nick Hartley

SDSU(2-2-3,1-0-1)battled the Iowa Hawkeyes (4-1-3,-0-0 Big Ten play) on Sept. 23. The lazy afternoon brought about a stiff wind for both teams.

The Hawkeyes got on the board early as IU defender Sarah Stephenson’s wind aided shot went past SDSU’s Brianna Rogers to put Iowa up 1-0 9:50 minutes into the game. The Hawkeyes scored again two minutes later, giving the Hawkeye’s a 2-0 lead.

Iowa forced a goal again as Alexandria Seydel’s shot went past Rogers in the 44 minute mark of the game to give Iowa a solid 3-0 lead going into halftime.

The Jacks responded with just one minute into second half play (46 minute) as a Kelsey Worcester shot found the goal. (assist by Kellyn Ferrell)

“Kelsey’s been a great player in the four years she has been here,” head coach Lang Wedermeyer said. “She is so dangerous in the attack and I’ve felt like she has been lacking a little of that mental toughness in the attack lately and the determination to get shots off and be dangerous.”

A Worcester shot hit the back of the goal again in stoppage time, giving SDSU dreams of a comeback with the score 2-3 with just seconds to play. With 22 seconds left, the Jacks thought they had the tying goal as they attacked Iowa hard. The ball crossed the white chalk, the game seemed to be tied and the Jacks celebrated and cheered. A loud whistle stopped the cheering for the Jackrabbits as officials called interference on the Jacks, which meant the goal was turned over and the game was over with the Hawekeys beating the Jacks 3-2.

Worcester finished the game with two goals and four shots for the Jacks. “I knew I had to turn it up,” Worcester said, “and I did realize I am a senior and I need to be a leader if we’re going to start scoring. We should have had more shots on goal with that wind, but we just couldn’t put it away.”

The SDSU coaching staff was pleased with Worcester’s performance: “We talked about it a little bit leading up to this weekend and she (Worcester) responded and stepped up,” Wedermeyer said. “Now the question is keeping her consistently being that dangerous next weekend.”

Both teams felt the large gust of wind during the game “We purposely wanted to go into the wind in the first half to hold them off,” Wedermeyer said. “The hardest part is this is the second time in three games that we have given up an own goal and a bad own goal.”

The Jacks return to action Sept. 28 at Drake.

“This is a very critical time for our team,” Wedermeyer said. “We are playing okay. We are just missing one or two of them critical plays within the game that are costing us those ties or losses lately the big thing for our team is to stay together and stay as positive as we can going into the Drake game.”

#1.883271:1811788287.jpg:soccervsIowa.jpg:Kaitlin Justice, a freshman midfielder, collides with Hawkeye defender, Sarah Stephenson during the game on Sunday afternoon. Iowa went on to win the game, 3-2.: