(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Hawkeye women finally return to Big Ten play tonight (Thursday) night, by hosting Northwestern. The 22nd ranked Hawkeyes started the league race a month ago with a win over Michigan State and had two games postponed last week. They take on a Northwestern team that has not played since December 17th.

That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder who says Northwestern plays a unique style of match up zone defense they call the “blizzard”.

Bluder says Northwestern’s defense is designed to take away the high post.

Junior guard Kate Martin says scheduling the non conference game against Evansville last weekend prevented the from having such a long layoff.