By Hawk Fanatic

With Sunday’s 71-52 victory over Virginia Tech in the ally Tipoff, the Iowa women’s basketball team has accomplished another first under new head coach Jan Jensen.

The 19-point win in Charlotte, North Carolina was Iowa’s first victory away from home under Jensen, who was promoted from Associate Head Coach to head coach on the same day Lisa Bluder announced her retirement this past May.

The Hawkeyes defeated Northern Illinois 91-73 in the season opener this past Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, giving Jensen her first win as head coach.

Iowa is coming off the greatest two-year stretch in program history as it finished as the NCAA runner-up in each of the past two seasons, and was led by two-time National Player of the Year, Caitlin Clark, who finished her career as the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer.

Three starters are gone from that team, but All-Big Ten junior forward Hannah Stuelke is back, along with senior guard Syd Affolter, who also played a significant role last season.

Iowa responded to the multiple roster changes by also adding high-scoring Villanova guard Lucy Olsen from the transfer portal.

Olsen and Stuelke both played key roles in Sunday’s win, scoring 20 and 16 points, respectively, while Affolter played 24 minutes off the bench and grabbed six rebounds in her first action since having her knee scoped about a month ago.

Iowa also received a boost from starting center Addi O’Grady, who scored 18 points and made all nine of her field-goal attempts.

Virginia Tech cut the deficit to two points in the third quarter, but that was the closest it would get as Iowa responded with a 10-0 scoring run, expanding the lead to 50-38 lead on a layup by Olsen in traffic.

Iowa closed the third quarter on a 15-2 scoring run over the last five minutes and led 56-40 heading to the fourth quarter.

The Hokies made runs throughout the game, but Iowa always had an answer and led almost from start to finish.

Iowa led 26-16 after the first quarter and was powered by a 10-0 scoring run late in the quarter.

The Hawkeyes assisted on six of their 10 baskets in the first quarter and were led in scoring by Stuelke, who had 10 points in the quarter.

Iowa had some support on hand from last season as former multi-year starters Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall both attended Sunday’s game and sat courtside.

Former Iowa All-Big Ten guard Kathleen Doyle was also in the arena in an official capacity as she is Virginia Tech’s Director of Recruiting and Player Development.

The Hawkeyes led by double figures for long stretches in the second quarter as Virginia Tech would go almost six minutes without scoring.

The Hokies rallied late in the quarter, however, trimming the deficit to 34-30 at halftime on a 7-0 scoring run.

Stuelke and Olsen led Iowa in scoring in the first half with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Iowa only shot 2-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half, but the Hokies weren’t much better, making 4-of-14 treys in the first two quarters.

Freshman Teagan Mallegni led Iowa with five rebounds in the first half off the bench.

Iowa has now defeated Virginia Tech in back-to-back season.

The Hawkeyes won last year’s matchup 80-76 in Charlotte as Caitlin Clark scored 44 points.

Jensen is the second coach in the history of the Iowa women’s basketball program to start with a 2-0 record, the other being Angie Lee.