Iowa women face ranked opponent

The Iowa Hawkeye women open the final week of the regular season at fourth ranked Purdue tonight. At 9-5, the Hawks are part of a four-way logjam for third in the conference standings and after tonight will close the regular season at Illinois on Sunday. Hawkeye coach Lisa Bluder says they have so much respect for the conference that they’d be thrilled to have an opportunity to finish third. She says one loss can make a difference and feels one win this week would be good enough for the Hawks to get into the NCAA Tournament. She says you never know what’s going to happen with the selection committee, but she says if you finish in fourth place in the conference, it’s hard to see how you couldn’t go to the tournament. Purdue is 13-1 and tied with Penn State at the top of the conference standings.