50 Iowa moments since Title IX: Hawkeye field hockey ends Final Four drought in spring 2021

Editor’s note: This is 28th in a series counting down the Top 50 moments in Iowa Hawkeyes women’s athletics history in the 50 days leading up to the 50th anniversary of Title IX in June.

Iowa field hockey didn’t exactly have the fondest memory of Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2019.

It’s where the Hawkeyes blew a 1-0 lead and fell one game short of a long-desired Final Four return.

“We were so frustrated because we had that game, and we felt that 2019 team absolutely could have been playing and should have been playing in the Final Four,” head coach Lisa Cellucci said.

But almost 18 months later, the Hawkeyes made a much happier memory on that same field in Chapel Hill — their first Final Four berth in 12 seasons.

“It was an awesome, awesome moment,” Cellucci said.

The 2020 Final Four season technically happened in spring 2021 because of COVID-19, but the players remained “mission-focused” during the pandemic and chose to continue working even when the Big Ten canceled the fall season.

“We trained all through the fall,” Cellucci said. “We had very few COVID cases. They really kept themselves in a bubble. … I was so impressed at how they protected each other and stayed safe.”

Iowa had a better Elite Eight draw than in 2019, but it still wasn’t an easy matchup. The Hawkeyes had to beat the same Northwestern team that bested them in the final two regular-season games.

“We had a great game plan,” Cellucci said. “The team was like, ‘There's no way we're losing this game.’”

And they were right, pulling off a 3-1 win over the No. 5 Wildcats.

The postseason run ended at the hands of the same opponent as 2019, albeit one round later and after Iowa accomplished its big goal. No. 1 North Carolina won, 3-0, in the Final Four.

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