AMES — Iowa State strengthened its defense after No. 8 TCU made its first goal in the sixth minute, setting the tone for the matchup. In the end, the Horned Frogs ran away and won 4-1.
Starting off on the right foot offensively, junior forward Ella Ciardullo attempted the Cyclones’ first shot on goal in the third minute of action.
Although this short time of success did not last long, three minutes later sophomore defender Bella Diorio scored the Horned Frogs’ first goal of the game in the sixth minute of play.
“Just as a team, player for player they [TCU] are so much quicker than us, so we knew if those spaces opened up they would hit us on the brick,” head coach Matt Fannon said. “TCU is fighting to win a national title, so we knew that they were going to be good in those spaces.”
The early goal led the Cyclones to strengthen and focus more on their defense front as TCU maintained 64% of ball possession in the first half and led with 12 attempted shots on goal.
“Getting scored on that early is always going to make you feel a bit down because you feel like you prepared so much, you have a game plan and it feels like it just goes out the window,” senior midfielder Lauren McConnell said. “But there is so much more game to play at the end of that so I don’t think we got down in that moment because we knew we had so much time and have fought back from deficits before.”
Iowa State’s defenders encouraged the new tone of the matchup. Junior Chloe Broughton and sophomore Ella Zimmerman used their speed to press the opponents and attack, and successfully gained possession for Iowa State to have attempted five shots on goal.
Goalkeeper Avery Gillahan also made a big impact on the Horned Frogs’ offense, as she maintained a defensive front in the net. Gillahan ended the first half with five saves against TCU’s six shots on target.
“If before the game you would have told us we had created so many chances against this team and battled so hard, there’s not much more I could have asked from our women,” Fannon said.
Entering the second half of the match, the Cyclones still led defensively in hopes of blocking TCU’s high shot percentage, but the Horned Frogs used their effective passing skills and maneuvered past Iowa State’s defense. Junior forward AJ Hennessey scored a lone goal as the second goal of the match in the 47th minute.
Still leading the field, TCU did not let the Cyclones rest as they struck back again three minutes later and put up its third goal of the match by Diorio, marking her second goal of the game with an assist from midfielder Oli Pena and Hennessey.
The Horned Frogs finished their beatdown in the 60th minute as forward Caroline Kelly scored TCU’s final goal of the matchup with an assist by Diorio.
Although coming to the end of the matchup, the Cyclones continued to battle and stole the ball from TCU, which led to senior forward Lauren McConnell scoring in the 75th minute to put Iowa State on the board.
“It was a great feeling to score, but it was already late in the game and we were already down 4-1 at that point,” McConnell said. “It helped us build momentum a little and helped us reach the end with a push but with that deficit, there was not much we could do with that little of time left.”
