Uncharted Territory: Dave Dilanni, Hawkeye Soccer hoping for a season unlike any other

Fresh off of a Big Ten Tournament Championship last season, a record-breaking 2,639 fans showed up at the UI Soccer Complex to watch the Iowa Women’s Soccer team defeat Bucknell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In that moment, it would have been easy to assume that was the norm for the program.

“That is by far the biggest crowd that I have seen in my time here…That is the Hawkeye community,” said Head Coach Dave Dilanni after the win.

However, the University of Iowa is not known for the women’s soccer program. Since the sport was added at Iowa in 1997, the Hawkeyes have only appeared in the NCAA Tournament four times, have not won any Big Ten regular season titles, and have finished 10th or lower in the standings in almost 40% of their seasons. These are just the facts. That’s the history.

Another fact? Head Coach Dave Dilanni is piloting a major change to the narrative around the Iowa Soccer program. The Hawkeyes have made the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five seasons, while the last half-decade has been riddled with “first time ever” occurrences.

• First Big Ten Tournament Championship (2020), 2nd in 2023
• First ever NCAA Tournament win (2020), 2nd in 2023
• First ever NCAA Tournament game hosted in Iowa City (2023)
• First ever postseason top 25 ranking (2023)

Now, for the first time in program history, the Hawkeyes will enter the season ranked in the preseason top 25. With everything that has happened over the last five years, the hope is that the best is still yet to come.

“I think if everything works out, this will be the deepest team that the University of Iowa has ever had,” Coach Dilanni told HawkeyeReport. “It’s not just depth in terms of experience, but it’s depth in terms of quality players that can share the load.”

Coming off of a 13-5-4 season that ended in the secound round of the NCAA Tournament, Iowa returns nine of eleven starters and added some new impactful pieces to the mix over the offseason. The next step for the Hawkeyes is not just to compete on the big stage at the NCAA Tournament, but to win multiple games.

So how does Coach Dilanni balance the expecations for his team coming into this season? This group has already done things that no other Hawkeye team has ever done and that’s worth celebrating. That being said, they can’t get hung up on it if they want 2024 to be the best in program history. It’s a delicate balance.

“I’m a pretty process driven individual, so, for me, I really try not to be too high and never too low,” said Dilanni. “You want to celebrate the successes and you have to make sure you pay attention to the accolades and the growth that you make as a program and as individuals, but we also speak a lot about being paranoid. Paranoid about being caught, paranoid about not getting better every day and being stagnant.”

Amongst the players that are expected to have a big impact this season, seven are grad seniors and five have played at least 3,000 minutes over the course of their career. Grad senior midfielder Reilee Fetty leads the way with 5,852 minutes played over the course of four seasons. The Hawkeyes also have a good dose of youth set to contribute, as three underclassmen started as freshman last season, while true freshman forward Berit Parten is expected to be a valuable contributor right away.

“This group’s interesting because we have a nice balance of upperclassmen that have played a lot of soccer, a lot of minutes, but we also have some younger players that are sophomores and freshman (that will contribute),” said Dilanni. “The teams that I like the most that I’ve had, you have a balance of players that are playing with experience, but youthfulness and excitement.”

Making this the best season in program history will not be a walk in the park, as the Hawkeyes are set to face conference favorites Florida Gulf Coast and Western Michigan in non-conference play, as well as #17 Texas and rival Iowa State on the road. In Big Ten play they will face six teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season, including matchups against preseason #4 Penn State and #6 Nebraska. However, this group of Hawkeyes that Coach Dilanni has put together is one that has the ability to make this season unlike any other in program history.

“I think the energy in the building is at an all-time high and I don’t think that’s about confidence or cockiness, it’s that they’re enjoying each other,” said Dilanni. “These ladies, this group of women put in the work this summer and understand that individually, if they want to have success, we have to have success as a team and the only way to do that is to be intentional with your work and do it as a group.”

The 25th-ranked Hawkeyes open the regular season on August 15th against the Oregon State Beavers in Missoula, Montana for the ‘Rumble in the Rockies’ multi-team event. They will finish up the trip with a game against the Colorado College Tigers on August 18th.

More to come on Iowa Soccer…

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