IOWA CITY, IOWA – Senior Shade Pratt scored the only goal of the game to lift the University of Maryland women's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Iowa Thursday afternoon at the UI Soccer Complex.
The Terrapins improve their overall record to 4-3-2 and up their Big Ten mark to 2-1-1. The Hawkeyes suffer just their second defeat of the season and are now 8-2-0 overall and 3-1-0 in conference play.
“Great win for our team on the road,” said Maryland head coach Jonathan Morgan. “We put together a very good performance in the first half and were able to reward ourselves with a great goal.
“Credit to Iowa they made some changes at halftime that disrupted our rhythm and made it hard for us to move the ball. However, I thought our kids did a tremendous job of staying focused and organized defensively when our possession wasn't going well. We never really gave them any dangerous looks and that ultimately allowed us to get the result.
“Shade Pratt was big time today. She scored the game-winner and also marked out of the game one of the league's best attacking players in Cloe Lacasse. She's a special player and Shade did a fantastic job not allowing her to find the ball in dangerous spaces.”
Maryland's first chance came in the 12th minute when Pratt's shot from inside the box was blocked by an Iowa defender. The ball rebounded to junior Alex Doody, who made a move to get around a defender before driving a hard strike to the far post, but Hawkeye keeper Hannah Clark was able to make a difficult save.
A turnover in its defensive third cost Iowa in the 17th minute. Junior Riley Barger picked the ball clean from a Hawkeye defender and took the ball down the left side. She found a cutting Pratt with a clean pass inside the box. Pratt showed tremendous patience, setting up an Iowa defender before a composed finish into the right side of the net to take a 1-0 lead.
Pratt continued to show her quality in the 25th minute as she slipped through a pair of Iowa defenders to get off a solid shot toward the upper right 90, but her effort when just wide of its mark.
Maryland's first real chance of the second half came in the 59th minute when junior Sarah Fichtner earned a corner kick for the Terps. Barger sent the corner toward the far post, but junior Maisie McCune's header went wide right.
The Terps countered a dangerous set piece for the Hawkeyes in the 81st minute with a chance of their own. Senior Cory Ryan made a strong run through the middle of the field before playing the ball back to junior Aubrey Baker. She had to adjust her shooting angle just a bit to avoid an Iowa defender, which forced her shot to trail away from the right post.
Iowa turned up the pressure as the clock wore on in the second half and earned a corner kick in the 85th minute. Bri Toelle sent a strong service into the box and Anne Marie Thomas got on the end of it with a solid downward header, but junior keeper Rachelle Beanlands made a tremendous save to preserve the 1-0 Terrapin lead.
Maryland's defense was solid all afternoon, limiting the Hawkeyes to just two shots on goal which Beanlands saved to earn her third shutout of the season.
The Terps wrap up their first-ever Big Ten road trip with a game at Nebraska on Sunday, Sept. 28. That match is set for a 3 p.m. Eastern start and will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.
