Box Score Despite a better effort in the second half, the Peacocks fell in their season opener to the Rockhurst, 1-0.

The game started with both teams getting early scoring opportunities. Rockhurst had the first chance seven minutes in, when senior forward Taylor Skala hit a shot from just outside the box that clanged off the cross bar. On the ensuing Peacock attack, Upper Iowa earned a corner kick which nearly ended in a goal. Aimee Wronski took the kick and the ball deflected out to Lauren Rohrmeier, who sent a missile of a shot over the net.

From that moment on, the Hawks were on the attack. Rockhurst had the game's next eight shots, but the Peacocks defense seemed up to the task. However, with nine minutes left, the Hawks broke through. Midfielder Brandi Van Booven took the ball wide and found forward Kristin Wolff just inside the box, where she was able to put a shot past Peacock goalkeeper Kaitlyn Emanuel.

Giving up a goal appeared to snap the Peacocks out of their funk. Upper Iowa went on the attack for the first time in seemingly 20 minutes and got a quality scoring opportunity from forward Morgan Springborn. But the shot went just wide and the Peacocks went into half trailing, 1-0.

The second half looked like it may be more of the same, with the majority of the first ten minutes played on the Peacock's defensive end. But senior Aimee Wronski wouldn't let the Peacocks go without a fight.

Wronski had two great scoring chances in the second half, including a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but her shot just skipped wide of the post.
The remainder of the game was a series of frantic attacks by the Peacocks, but to no avail.

Afterword, Coach Brian Diaz expressed that while the Peacocks played well, when playing tougher competition, often just playing well won't be enough.

"Rockhurst is a tournament team for a reason and they showed that today," said Diaz.

Even with giving up a goal, Diaz was happy with the team's defensive performance.

"I thought Jess Dickhaus and Rachel Fowler played really well as center backs today, and I thought defensively we played really well," said Diaz. "Those two have to lead that ship, and they did it really well."

Wronski and Rohrmeier led the team with three shots each. Emanuel finished the game with seven saves.

The Peacocks will now start a stretch of four straight road games, beginning with their first conference match of the year at Winona State on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. The next home game for UIU will be Sept. 27 when they take on Minnesota Duluth.