Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Iowa’s Big Ten championship soccer match against Wisconsin turned on a play initiated by a freshman and finished on a penalty kick by a 25-year-old, seventh-year grad student.

“I think it was (Sofia) Bush and she kind of pointed across the box, a little cross in, and it kind of just went over everybody,” Iowa’s Josie Durr said. “I was just kind of hanging out on the top of the 18, and I saw it. And I was like, ‘I’ve got to get it back in; everybody’s in the box, I’ve got to get it back in.’

“As I was running I didn’t see the Wisconsin girl. I was just like, ‘I’ve got to get to the ball; I’ve got to get it across before everybody gets set.’”

As Durr pursued, Wisconsin defender Gabby Green also took off for the loose ball to the left of the net. Durr’s quick reaction and angle of pursuit placed her just between the on-rushing Green and the ball. Green crashed into Durr and sent her sprawling. Whistle. Penalty kick awarded.

Green was beside herself after the call, looking forlorn and holding her arms out, but the call was obvious and needed no review.

“She ran right through me,” Durr said.

Durr seemed a bit baffled by Green’s unnecessary haste.

“None of my teammates were over there yet,” Durr said. “So there wasn’t much I could do once I got to the ball.”

Durr swung her fist in celebration of the opportunity in the 18^th minute, but she had to finish the PK. She placed the ball and purposely ignored the goalkeeper.

“I try to avoid that because I don’t want to give away any ideas,” she said. “I don’t know, some goalkeepers have ways of reading people that they know or just can tell where you’re going to go. (I) focus on what I’m doing and try not to give them any hints.”

Durr’s shot sliced to her right into the upper corner. The Badger keeper correctly guessed the direction but dove too low for the rocket off Durr’s foot.

“Luckily I went high,” she said.

Against all odds that was the only goal in the game and gave the Hawkeyes the Big Ten Tournament title and an NCAA tournament bid.

Somehow it was fitting for the team’s ‘old lady’ to be the one to get the winner.

What Durr has gone through to play college soccer is not something you’d wish on your worst enemy.

And yet here she is in her seventh season, still with an ‘Aw Shucks’ persona, still playing valuable minutes and making plays.

In fact she leads the team in goals scored with six and has two assists. She has converted three of her four PKs.

The abridged version of Durr’s journey includes a quad injury in her final high-school season at Solon that knocked her out of what would have been her freshman season in 2017.

She played the next three years, one of which was during the COVID pandemic.

In 2021 she tore an ACL in the first game and missed the season. She averaged 78 minutes per game last season at her position in the midfield.

By virtue of her medical redshirts and the added year granted by the NCAA for 2020’s pandemic she was eligible to return for another season.

“I had plans to move away and move down to Arizona, and then those kind of fell through,” Durr said.

“So I was just hanging out, and (coach) Dave (Dilanni) says, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said ‘I’m not doing anything.’ And he goes, ‘Do you want to play again?’”

She was skeptical. “I missed soccer, but seven years? That’s kind of crazy,” Durr said.

Iowa keeper Macy Enneking and star defender Samantha Cary lobbied Durr.

The selling point was not some grand vision of success but rather something more mundane.

“They were like, ‘why not?’” Durr recalled. “’What else do you have to do?’”

When faced with the choice of getting a job or playing one more fall of Big Ten soccer Durr succumbed to the siren song of youth and decided to play on.

Durr was a scoring machine in high school but at Iowa has played mostly in the midfield.

She started her career in an unfamiliar defensive mid role, but she enjoys the position and getting on the field is way more important than the position itself.

“I’ve kind of been bouncing around a little more this year, not as much playing a defensive mid or a six role, but they’ve bumped me to like an attacking mid role,” she said. “So I’ve been able to get opportunities in those games.

“But we have double pivots, there’s two of us back there. That allows me to kind of get forward because (Rielee) Fetty kind of sits back, so it’s kind of like set balancing. If one goes forward the other kind of hangs out. So it allows us to have a little more freedom in that role in the attack.”

Iowa (12-4-4) eked out the last qualifying spot in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hawkeyes had just lost 3-0 at Michigan State and were sent back to East Lansing to begin the tournament.

While that’s not a likely scenario for a championship run, Durr said the team was oddly confident.

For one thing this was nearly the exact scenario when Iowa won its first Big Ten title in 2020, defeating Penn State in the semis and Wisconsin in the championship.

“I think it’s just having a belief,” she said. “We know we are a good team. We got that second burst, and we found out we made the tournament even though we lost our last game. And ‘Oh, we have another chance, a second chance. Let’s not waste it.’ Building off that mentality was pretty important going into the game.”

Durr is an exercise science major and has a number of minors as a result of her lengthy stay in Iowa City.

She’s not sure what she’s looking for in a job, but it’s likely to be in the exercise fitness area. She originally thought of continuing in soccer but says her body has been through enough.

It’s been a long, strange trip for Durr, but that’s OK.

“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it,” she said. “I love the team. I love the girls. My best friends come from this team. Just all the experiences and all the things I got out of it definitely made it worth it. It’s been a fun seven years. It’s definitely had its ups and downs, but the good, like winning the Big Ten Championships, making the NCAA tournaments, definitely outweigh some of the harder times we had to go through.”

After seven years she looks at the world differently. She appreciates what she’s had because at times she thought her career was over.

“I don’t take things for granted,” she said. “That carries over to all types of things. You never know when it could be your last time doing something, so just take full advantage of every opportunity you get.”

Iowa plays host to Bucknell Friday night at 6 p.m. in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

The game will be streamed by ESPN+.

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