Iowa field hockey returns nation’s leading scorer as it braces for ‘stacked’ Big Ten

IOWA CITY — The secret is out about Iowa field hockey star Dionne van Aalsum.

“She’s going to be absolutely a marked woman,” Iowa Coach Lisa Cellucci said.

After “nobody knew about her” ahead of the 2023 season, it would be hard for any field hockey enthusiast to not know about van Aalsum going into 2024.

The Hawkeye midfielder led the country last season as a freshman with 28 goals and 62 points. She individually averaged more goals (1.47) per game last season than Indiana and Michigan State’s entire teams (1.26 and 1.06).

“Last year was unbelievable,” Cellucci said.

The Dutch midfielder opened her collegiate career with eight consecutive multi-goal games. As opponents increasingly focused on defending her, she had only seven goals in her last 11 games of the 2023 season — still one of the most efficient goal-scorers in the conference, albeit not at the record-breaking pace from before.

“It became harder for me to be more open and get those opportunities to score, to make my own actions,” van Aalsum said.

Looking ahead at 2024, van Aalsum’s well-known scoring prowess can create opportunities elsewhere for the Hawkeyes, whether it be for Miranda Jackson, Annika Herbine or others.

“It’ll open up a lot of different things for our team,” Cellucci said.

Van Aalsum had a “precautionary procedure” during the summer, but Cellucci was optimistic about her status with more than a week to go until the start of the regular season.

Iowa’s van Aalsum-led scoring attack is one half of what generally has been a winning formula for Iowa field hockey.

“We’re really excited because if you have goal scoring and goalkeeping, you’re in contention,” Cellucci said. “And that’s what we have this year with this group.”

As for the latter half of that equation, the Hawkeyes return Mia Magnotta in goal after having the sixth-best goals-against average (1.09) in the country. Other key players on the defensive end include Harper Dunne and Milly Short.

“We can be lethal defensively,” Cellucci said.

Comparable success in 2024 is certainly not a given, though. The Big Ten — still at nine teams in field hockey, with seven finishing in the top 20 nationally last year in RPI — is “stacked” this year, Cellucci said.

“We have a lot of teams that have come back, and they have the team that we had two years ago with a ton of fifth-year starters,” Cellucci said.

Iowa, meanwhile, lost veteran players such as midfielder/forward Sofie Stribos and midfielder/defender Esme Gibson after they used their fifth and final years of eligibility in 2023.

Midfielder/defender Lieve Schalk would be one of the most experienced players coming back with 57 career starts, but Cellucci said her “status is up in the air” for this season as she recovers from an ACL injury.

Second-year defender Lauren DeRose, who played in 16 of Iowa’s 19 games last year, also is out with an ACL injury.

“To be honest, sure, there’s concerns in our backfield obviously with Lieve and Lauren being out and being injured, but we’re grooming lots of different people to be able to fill the roles,” Cellucci said. “And we have the opportunity to play a couple different structures, too, that will help us there.”

Even with the aforementioned challenges, Iowa field hockey’s goals are the same.

“When you’re a part of Iowa field hockey, really for us, the goals don’t change,” Cellucci said. “It’s always to be chasing the Big Ten championship, to get in the NCAA tournament and chase a Final Four berth. But really for us, the focus is on the growth in the everyday and playing to our style.”

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