Iowa Hawkeyes: USWNT star Rose Lavelle beat on Hawks in college

The U.S. Women’s National Team just claimed the World Cup title with the help of former Badger Rose Lavelle who spent college beating on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

An unlikely star, former University of Wisconsin Badger Rose Lavelle had an incredible run with the U.S. Women’s National Team as they claimed the 2019 World Cup title. Just four years ago though, her skills weren’t tormenting other countries, they were tormenting Big Ten foes like the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Rose Lavelle spent four seasons playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes’ rival Wisconsin and in that time, she never lost to the Hawks. Not a single time in five games. She was also pretty darn good as she was named an All-American all four years and First Team All-Big Ten all four years while playing the midfielder position up in Madison.

The closest she came to losing to our beloved Iowa Hawkeyes was in 2014 when the #12 ranked Badgers couldn’t muster a goal against the Hawkeyes.

As a midfielder, Lavelle naturally isn’t going to get as many goals as a striker, but she did manage to put the ball in the net 22 times and assisted on an additional 24 goals.

She even scored against the Iowa Hawkeyes in her first game against the black and gold her freshman year, and it was a big-time goal. Her 81st-minute goal gave the Badgers a 2-1 lead that they would hold for the remaining minutes to emerge victoriously.

Lavelle wasn’t the only U.S. Women’s National Team player with Big Ten ties, and thus, a greater likelihood of having made the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s soccer team pay. Ali Krieger and Alyssa Naeher both played for the Penn State Nittany Lions and Carli Lloyd played for Rutgers (albeit, before Rutgers was in the Big Ten). The results were pretty similar for the Iowa Hawkeyes, not good.

Ali Krieger played for Penn State from 2003 to 2006 and Alyssa Naeher played with the Nittany Lions from 2006 to 2009, and in that time period, the Iowa Hawkeyes were winless in nine games, and they weren’t exactly close. Penn State outscored Iowa 34 to 2 in those nine games.

As for Lloyd, even though Rutgers wasn’t in Iowa’s conference at the time, the Hawks did face off against the U.S. Women’s National Team player. This faceoff was a bit different as the Hawkeyes actually beat Lloyd’s Scarlet Knights team. Lloyd did get a goal in though.

Although the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s soccer team isn’t known for producing elite level talent that will go on to compete on the national stage, it’s interesting to see the connections the program has to some of the main faces of the World Cup Champion U.S. Women’s National Team.