Huskies Kickoff Big Ten Tournament Saturday Versus Iowa

Saturday, November 2

Minneapolis, MN

4:30 PM

University of Washington

Iowa

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November 01, 2024 | Women's Soccer

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MINNEAPOLIS – The sixth-seeded Washington women's soccer team kicks off its first-ever Big Ten Tournament on Saturday, facing off against No. 3 seed and 17^th-ranked Iowa in quarterfinal action at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. PT.

The match will be available for streaming on B1G+, with live stats available at HuskyStats.com.

SCOUTING IOWA
Iowa is led by head coach Dave Dilanni, who is in his 11th season in Iowa City after an 11-year run at NCAA Division II powerhouse Grand Valley State. In his time at Iowa, Dilanni has amassed more than 100 wins and has guided the Hawkeyes to three NCAA Tournament bids and a pair of Big Ten Championships.

Ranked No. 17 in the nation, The Hawkeyes finished the regular season third in the Big Ten table with a 8-2-1 record in league play, 13-2-3 overall. Iowa capped the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The Hawkeyes are led in scoring by true freshman Berit Parten with seven goals on the season, including the lone goal in UW's 1-0 defeat to Iowa in Iowa City. Senior forward Meike Ingles paces Iowa with five assists in 2024.

The Hawkeyes boast three All-Big Ten honorees in graduate student midfielder Maggie Johnston, sophomore defender Millie Greer and sophomore midfielder Sofia Bush. Parten was selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

Graduate student Macy Enneking has played all but two minutes in goal for the Hawkeyes, posting a 0.56 goals against average to tie UW's Mia Hamant for third-lowest in the Big Ten. Enneking owns a .828 save percentage on 48 stops.

SERIES HISTORY
The Huskies and Hawkeyes had never played prior to this season's matchup in Iowa City, a 1-0 win for then No. 14 Iowa over then No. 24 Washington.

LAST MEETING (11/2/24)
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The 24th ranked Washington women's soccer team proved a formidable foe in Thursday night's road matchup with No. 14 Iowa but dropped a physical 1-0 result at the Iowa Soccer Complex.

Despite wearing the loss, Washington keeper Mia Hamant was strong in goal, tallying five saves on the night.

The Hawkeyes broke through off a corner in the 36th minute as Hamant was brought to the ground following a punch on the initial service. With the goal vacant, Iowa's Berit Parten rung a shot off the post and in to put the Hawkeyes ahead 1-0.

After the second half restart, Washington controlled the pace of play, searching for an equalizer, ultimately outshooting Iowa 5-2 in the second 45 minutes.

The Dawgs had a pair of looks to equalize early on in the second half off of free kicks from just outside the 18. However, Ioanna Papatheodorou was unable to hit the frame on either occasion.

Washington had a last ditch attempt to equalize with 35 seconds left on the clock after a foul was drawn near the midfield stripe. The Huskies sent Hamant forward to send in the delivery but Iowa was able scramble the ball away to secure the win.

SAY BYE BYE
With last Sunday's 3-0 win over Oregon, Washington finished its first Big Ten season tied for the fifth most points in the league table and secured a first round bye for the Big Ten Tournament, advancing straight to the quarterfinals. Washington is competing in its first-ever conference tournament.
GET HER TO THE GREEKS
This past week, UW senior striker Ioanna Papatheodorou earned a call up to the Greece National Team for 2025 European Championship qualifying action in Crete, Greece, and Leuven, Belgium. Papatheodorou entered as a sub in the 74th minute of Sunday's second leg as Belgium advanced through the playoff matchup.

It was the second senior team cap for Papatheodorou, who made the starting XI for Greece's 6-0 win over Andorra in group stage qualifying earlier this summer.

BRICK-BY-BRICK
Washington has proven to be one of the toughest defenses to crack in 2024, ranking eighth in the nation with a 0.529 team goals-against-average and sixth nationally with a 0.878 team save percentage. UW has posted nine clean sheets, eclipsing its total of six from 2023. Along with UCLA, Washington is one of two Big Ten teams that did not allow multiple goals in a single conference match.

MAMA MIA
Junior Mia Hamant has been a breakout star for Washington in 2024, ranking fourth in the nation and first in the Big Ten with an .881 save percentage as well as 17th in the NCAA and third in the B1G in goals-against-average at 0.560. Hamant has garnered six of UW's nine clean sheets this season.

SPARTY PARTY
Washington's victory over No. 5 Michigan State on Sunday was UW's first win over a top-5 ranked team since 2017, when the Huskies defeated No. 2 Florida 1-0 at Husky Soccer Stadium.

ROOKIE RECOGNITION
Washington's Andrea Leyva, a midfielder out of Las Vegas, came in at No. 56 in TopDrawerSoccer's midseason Top-100 Freshman rankings. Leyva has appeared in all 15 matches for the Huskies, cracking the Starting XI 10 times.

YES INDEED I CAN RUN IT, RUN IT
While Washington made its living largely off of set piece opportunities in 2023, the vast majority of the Huskies' 24 goals in 2024 have come through build-up play. The Huskies have scored 16 times this season from the run of play, compared to eight goals coming off of set pieces.

STARTING XI FIXTURE
Since making seven-straight starts to end her freshman campaign, junior Kelsey Branson has not failed to crack the Huskies' starting XI a single time, a streak spanning 43 consecutive matches. Branson is the only Husky to start all 19 matches in 2023 and all 17 fixtures of 2024.

EMPTYING THE TANK
Kolo Suliafu has not come off the pitch in any of the last 22 matches for Washington, playing 1,980 straight minutes for the Huskies. Suliafu played the full 90 minutes in 13 of 18 matches played in 2023.

GANG'S ALL BACK
Washington returns nearly the entirety of its roster from the 2023 roster, standing as the only team in the Big Ten to return its entire starting XI with 11 returners with 10 or more starts in 2023.

What's more, the bulk of the Huskies firepower is back, with Washington returning the vast majority of its goals (26/31, 83.9%), assists (31/33, 93.9%), points (83/95, 87.4%) shots (215/246, 87.4%), shots on goal (90/108, 83.3%) and game-winning goals (9/9, 100%) from a season ago.

Additionally, with 3-of-4 goalkeepers back from the 2023 roster, the Dawgs return practically all of its goalkeeper minutes (1605:29/1710:00, 93.9%) and saves (62/64, 96.9%).

B1G PAPI
Leading Washington to a six-point weekend with wins over Michigan and No. 5 Michigan State, senior striker Ioanna Papatheodorou was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday. The Greek international bagged four goals on the week, including both match winners. Papatheodorou both scored the equalizing goal and gave Washington the lead in Thursday's 3-1 victory over the Wolverines, then doubled down with a pair of long range free kick strikes, the second with just over five minutes left on the clock, to lift the Huskies 2-1 over the Spartans on Sunday.

Papatheodorou is Washington's first-ever Big Ten Player of the Week honoree and the first Husky to earn conference player of the week honors since Kelsey Branson and Olivia Juarez were named the Pac-12 Offensive Player and Goalkeeper of the Week for week 9 of 2023 after Washington's 1-1 draw at No. 2 Stanford.

The senior was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer Team of the week and reeled in NCAA Player of the Week laurels.

PAYING (OFF) THE PENALTY
Ioanna Papatheodorou is about as sure of a thing from the penalty spot as there is in college soccer. The senior has converted seven of the eight spot kicks taken in her career, including each of the last five. Papatheodorou has been called to take a penalty exactly twice in all four of her collegiate seasons.

A B1G NEW ERA
Washington enters a new era in 2024 as a member of the prestigious Big Ten Conference. The move means not only new destinations but new challenges for the Huskies as well, with the Big Ten boasting nine teams that earned a bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament and seven schools ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll.

Washington, a founding member of what eventually became the Pac-12 Conference, began play in what was then known as the Pac-10 during the conference's first season supporting women's soccer in 1995. UW launched its women's soccer program in 1991.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY
For the first time since 2018, Washington returns every member of its coaching staff, retaining assistant coaches Cole Schmit, Raphael Cox and Kary Whitney to Nicole Van Dyke's staff.

SMART COOKIES
For the ninth straight season, Washington has received the United Soccer Coaches Academic Award after earning a 3.67 team GPA.

KEEP AN EYE OUT
Prior to the season, the Big Ten Conference announced its Players to Watch List, with a trio of Husky juniors making the cut in midfielder's Kelsey Branson and Tatum Thomason and defender Kolo Suliafu.

Thomason led the Dawgs with six goals in 2023, scoring three times in the final three matches of the season. Thomason came up in the clutch all season long for the Huskies, bagging four of UW's nine match-winning goals for the season.

Following up on a breakout freshman campaign, Branson doubled up with another phenomenal season in 2023, scoring four goals and chipping in three assists. The San Diego native earned her second career Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after leading UW to a historic road point at No. 2 Stanford.

With a combination of speed, toughness and defensive awareness, Suliafu has served as a backline anchor for the Huskies since stepping on campus in 2022. The Ontario, California, native has started 40 matches over her first two-plus seasons, leading the Huskies to 13 clean sheets. Also making an impact on offense, Suliafu has contributed four assists in her career.

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB
One of the more unique paths to the Husky roster comes from junior Avery Nguyen, who was offered a roster spot prior to the start of the 2023 season after a trial during preseason training. A native of the Kansas City metro area and a former standout for Olathe Northwest High School and Sporting Blue Valley, Nguyen led the UW club team in scoring as a college freshman in 2022.

Nguyen played a significant role for the Dawgs during the 2023 season, appearing in 11 matches and making a pair of starts.

HUSKIES PICKED 13TH IN BIG TEN PRESEASON POLL
The Big Ten Conference announced the 2024 Preseason Coaches' Poll prior to the season, with Washington predicted to finish 13th in its new league table as voted on by the conference's 18 head coaches.

2024 BIG TEN PRESEASON COACHES' POLL
1. UCLA
2. Penn State
3. Michigan State
4. Nebraska
5. USC
6. Wisconsin
7. Rutgers
8. Iowa
9. Ohio State
10. Indiana
11. Michigan
12. Northwestern
13. Washington
14. Minnesota
15. Illinois
16. Purdue
17. Maryland
18. Oregon

WATCH THE DAWGS
Aside from Washington's matchups with USC and Iowa, which will be featured on the Big Ten Network, all UW home matches and Big Ten road matches will be available for streaming through B1G+. The live streams require a subscription, priced at $89.99 for one year or $12.99 per month. The B1G+ subscription allows you access to all non-televised Big Ten events, in addition to all non-televised Washington events throughout the year.

FOLLOW THE DAWGS
Fans can keep up with all the goings on around the Washington women's soccer program by following the Huskies on the team's various social media platforms. You can find the Dawgs on X at @UW_WSoccer, on Instagram at @uw_wsoccer or on Facebook by searching "Washington Women's Soccer". Fans can also follow the Huskies through the women's soccer page at GoHuskies.com.