Iowa Soccer Preview: Defenders/Goalkeeper

You can always expect a Dave Dilanni coached soccer team to play good defense. That’s been the backbone of his Iowa team’s for over a decade and it’s a big reason why the Hawkeyes have been able to quickly rise up the ranks as a program. Over the past six seasons, the Hawkeyes have totaled a remarkable 57 shutouts and conceded only 90 goals across 115 games (0.78 per gm). During that span, they’ve advanced to the NCAA Tournament four times.

“For us, our staple is defending…We’re going to press you, we’re going to be in your face and we’re going to be difficult to play through,” head coach Dave Dilanni told HawkeyeReport prior to last season. “We have our core model and that’s going to start with defending and I think championships come down to the defending side of the field.”

Last season, their defense was one of the best in the country, ranking seventh in the country in goals allowed per game (0.54) and 13th in shutouts (12). They were set to return their entire back line this season, but two-year starter Eva Pattison injured her knee in the NCAA Tournament against Virginia Tech and Dave Dilanni revealed on Monday that she will miss the entire season.

With the graduation of multi-year starting goalkeeper Macy Enneking and the season-ending injury suffered by Pattison, the Hawkeyes return just two of four starters on their defense. Despite that being the case, Coach Dilanni still feels really good about the players he has at his disposal. We take a look at the Iowa defense discussing who will take over in goal for Enneking and the depth of the back line with Pattison out, while giving an outlook on the group as a whole.

Defenders

Projected Starters: Millie Greer (Jr), Miah Schueller (GSr), Price Loposer (GSr)

Names to Watch: Iba Oching (Soph), Sammy Reimer (Fr), Lexy Griffin (rJr)

Two years ago, the leader of the defense was Sam Cary. Last year, it could be argued that Macy Enneking was the leader, despite being a goalkeeper. Heading into this season, there’s not much doubt that junior Millie Greer is the next one in line to takeover the captain of the defense title. The two-year starter out of Scottsdale, Arizona tallied 3,880 minutes played as an underclassman, averaging 88.18 minutes per game, including playing 90+ minutes in 35 of 44 games started. Her efforts earned her Second Team All-Big Ten honors last season, while she was named Iowa Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman and Co-Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore last season.

Despite having the biggest role of her career this season, including becoming one of the leaders of the team as an upperclassman, Coach Dave Dilanni says he wants Millie to focus on being the player that has gotten her to this point, rather than putting a ton of emphasis on being the team leader.

“What I don’t want is Millie to be solely focused on leadership, and then forget that she’s a junkie and just loves to play. She’s one of our best players, and just needs to settle in a little bit and remember that the leadership part will take place by her performance,” Dilanni said. “She just needs to be somebody who’s calm, collected and comfortable being the player who can unlock the game, can direct and lead, and she’s gotten so much better in the air.”

Last year, much of the talk was centered around Macy Enneking in goal, as well as Millie Greer and Eva Pattison on the back line of the defense. This season, Greer returning and a couple of notable transfer additions are the top headlines, while grad senior Miah Schueller remains under the radar. Over her first three years with the program, Schueller totaled just 964 minutes played, but finally got her shot as a starter last season after Sam Cary graduated and moved on to pro soccer. She started all 22 games and was second on the team in minutes played (1,888), including playing 90+ minutes in 16 games. Now, the former walk-on enters this year as a returning starter and one of the anchors on the Iowa defense.

“Wonderful kid. Walk-on starter who earned a scholarship last year and overcame a really challenging first two years physically,” said Dilanni. “A good kid who everyone likes, who has become a very good individual defender. She might be our best individual defender because she’s worked at it and comes from one of the top clubs in the country where she had to compete every single day just to get on the field for them.”

The coaching staff did really well in the portal and knowing that it was entirely possible that they were going to have to go through the ’25 season without Eva Pattison, they went out and added four-year SEC starter Price Loposer from Mississippi State. She has spent time at Ole Miss, UCF and Mississippi State, accumulating 68 starts, 78 games played and 6,169 minutes played.

“She’s a leader and she’s a driven competitor. Her and Millie (Greer) are uniquely quirky in terms of how they compete, we’re just elated to have her,” said Dilanni. “She’s a very good individual defender. She’s good in the air for somebody who’s 5-foot-7. I think it’s going to make us better having her there and it allows Iba Oching to play higher up the field.”

It seems as though it’s pretty set in stone that the starting back three will be Greer, Schueller and Loposer, and while they will garner that vast majority of the minutes, depth is still present behind them. Syracuse transfer Iba Oching will likely see more time as a midfielder, but could also shift to the back on occasion. The two most likely candidates to slot in on the back line as subs are true freshman Sammy Reimer and former Southern Miss transfer Lexy Griffin.

One of the first subs in the exhibition against Kansas, Sammy Reimer played her club soccer with the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy and is expected to have a role in her first season with the Hawkeyes. Meanwhile, Lexy Griffin, a former starter in the Sun Belt at Southern Miss, appeared in just six games last season, but played 2,451 minutes over two seasons with the Eagles, so she has a good bit of collegiate experience under her belt.

“We have the deepest back line we’ve had in probably seven or eight years, so knowing that Millie (Greer) and Miah (Schueller) have played and Price (Loposer) is a four-time SEC starter, we feel like we’re pretty good in that space right now, and feel like we can be solid while the goalkeepers are figuring it out.”

“I think we have good competition, but we also have good depth in the back.”

Goalkeeper

Starter: Taylor Kane (GSr) OR Fernanda Mayrink (Soph)

When the Hawkeyes take the field on Thursday for their season-opener against Arkansas, it will be the first time in 49 games that a new goalkeeper is in the starting lineup. Over the course of her five-year Hawkeye career, Macy Enneking appeared in 77 games, with 65 starts, but now she’s playing professionally in Iceland, so it will be a new face between the posts. With just a couple days until the season kicks off, the battle for the starting goalkeeper job is still ongoing between Taylor Kane and Barry University transfer Fernanda Mayrink. The two played a half apiece in the exhibition matches against South Dakota and Kansas.

“I think it’s probably going to go for a couple of weeks. I don’t know that we’ll have a true number one right away. Both of them are doing really well,” said Dilanni. “People say if you have two two’s, then you don’t have a one, so the goal is to be able to have the answer as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure we’re fair.”

A two-year backup behind Macy Enneking after transferring in from DIII Pomona-Pitzer, 5-foot-10 grad senior Taylor Kane could have the upper hand due to her familiarity with the Hawkeyes system, while she also got to learn from a top-tier goalkeeper. Kane has appeared in just one game during her time at Iowa, but Coach Dilanni has said in the past that she has more than enough skills to compete at the Power 4 level.

“Taylor is a very ambitious, hungry, driven young lady who wants to be successful in everything she does, including wanting to be a pro soccer player and I think it would be everything for her to be able to be the number one here at Iowa,” said Dilanni.

“She’s worked really hard to enhance all the athleticism that she has, but also fine tune some of the skills that maybe she was lacking in previous years. Being braver coming off of her line, getting balls in the air on a consistent basis, which is important when you’re 5’10, to be able to do that. Taylor’s playing her best soccer right now with us in camp.”

Battling with Kane for the starting job is 5-foot-7 is DII Barry University transfer Fernanda Mayrink. Originally from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Mayrink spent her freshman season at Barry, earning Third Team All-Sunshine State honors for the Buccaneers. She averaged 4.45 saves per game and posted a 0.817 save percentage over 11 starts. Coach Dilanni says that Mayrink spent the summer training with a pro club in Brazila and has come to campus in great form.

“Fernanda brings a totally different skill set than Taylor does. Her feet are similar to any of the field players, so that adds an additional field player on there that we can play it back to her,” said Dilanni. “She’s going to have to prove that, like anybody, not matter what height she is, she can go amongst the crowd in the Big Ten and against the SEC teams to be able to go get a ball in the air.”

“I think she can prove that size is not a factor, but she’s going to have to do that on a consistent basis.”

The Hawkeyes early season schedule is hardly a cakewalk, with matches against #7 Arkansas and #16 TCU, followed by a meeting with a Western Michigan team that made the NCAA Tournament last season. Who starts in goal for Iowa for the first few matches could come down to the opponent they are facing and what skillset the Hawkeyes need. Coach Dilanni says that Mayrink would give them extra distribution at the back and act almost as another field player, while Kane is better against teams that are direct and like to play a lot of balls into the box.

Outlook

The injury to Eva Pattison and announcement that she will miss the entire season is certainly disappointing, but the Hawkeyes have enough depth to overcome that loss. Experience won’t be a concern on the back line, as Millie Greer and Miah Schueller were the top two in minutes played last season for Iowa, while Price Loposer has logged at least 1,300 minutes four times during her career. Add in Iba Oching — likely to feature more in midfield but capable of slotting into the back line — along with Sammy Reimer and Lexy Griffin, and the Hawkeyes shouldn’t see any drop-off in the play of their back line. The only major question is in goal: who wins the starting spot, and can they perform well enough to keep Iowa among the nation’s elite defensive units?