The No. 18 Ohio State field hockey team (8-6, 2-1) fell, 3-0, to the No. 17 Iowa Hawkeyes (9-3, 2-2) Saturday afternoon in their home finale. The Buckeyes honored their senior captains, Jenn Sciulli and Ally Tunitis before the matchup against the Hawkeyes.

Although the Buckeyes were not victorious, the players and fans in attendance were able to celebrate the senior day with their captains who have combined for 53 wins and 116 starts since joining the program in 2008.

“It is a great honor to be playing at such a great school athletically,” said senior goalkeeper and Macungie, Pa. native, Tunitis. “Just being able to represent Ohio State is important to me.”

After the loss Saturday, Tunitis fell to 8-6 on the season, recording one save.

The Buckeyes also recognized senior back Sciulli, a native of Palmyra, Pa., who leads the conference in defensive stops and tied her 2010 season high in the first half of Saturday’s game. She is now tied for second on the OSU all-time list with 22 career stops.

“It was a great honor to be recognized before the game [Saturday] after spending four years here,” Sciulli said. “Unfortunately we did not get the result we were looking for today.”

After the Buckeyes began the game pressuring in the first half, the Hawkeyes capitalized on their first scoring opportunity and netted their first goal at the 24-minute mark.

As the Buckeyes headed into halftime trailing by just one goal and their hopes still high, they eventually fell short as the Hawkeyes scored two more to close the game out with a 3-0 win.

The loss Saturday ended the Buckeyes six-game winning streak and brought them back to the middle of the pack in the Big Ten standings sitting at 2-1.

The team will have to play a full game if they want success to find them down the stretch said coach Anne Wilkinson. They now have four games left on their regular season schedule.

“We need to be able to play a full 70 minutes,” Wilkinson said. “You can’t check out for even a minute against a ranked team and we need to continue to bring the energy out.”

Despite the recent loss, Tunitis recognized some positives the Buckeyes can take into their next match against Michigan State at the end of this week.

“We know what we need to work on now,” Tunitis said. “Today really just highlighted what needs to be done in practice this week.”

The Scarlet and Gray will finish their regular season with four road games, the first being Friday as they take on Michigan State at 3 p.m. in East Lansing, Mich.