Field hockey splits weekend
Chris McCarty
Spero, in her fourth year as a starter, maintained her average as the field hockey team split a pair of matches this weekend at Ann Arbor.
The Chippewas lost on Friday to No. 12 Northeastern, 3-1, in a torrential downpour; and on Sunday beat Temple, 2-1, to bring their record to 6-3 heading into MAC play.
Against Northeastern, the Chippewas were outshot 13-11, but had the edge in penalty corners 7-5. CMU’s lone goal came from Kristy Reed on a pass from Katie Coccia in the first half.
“I think that the Northeastern game was one of our best games we have played all season,” said Head Coach Cristy Freese. “It was kind of difficult because of the water on the turf and there was about 20 minutes of play where you could hardly move the ball.”
Although Northeastern was undefeated and Freese felt that her team played well, considering the situation.
“If it wouldn’t have been raining so bad, we could have had more shots,” she said. “I felt we were very competitive in the conditions.”
The Chippewas, who are 6-1 when scoring first, started off strong against Temple. Michelle Fogle opened the scoring for CMU on a rebound off of a penalty corner. Kristy Reed scored the same way to finish off CMU’s scoring.
“I felt we played pretty well offensively and defensively against Temple,” Freese said. “In the second half, we gave up nine penalty corners and our defense stepped it up a lot. That was the deciding factor.”
Temple kept CMU from blocking their penalty corners, which the Chippewas have had success doing.
“They used a lot of deception and fakes on their penalty corners,” Freese said. “We handled their second-half pressure very well.”
Heading into the MAC season, Freese said she wants her team to be playing good individual defense.
“We have been working on our individual defense,” she said. “All the sticks are right- handed and so the offense always goes to the defense’s weak side and we did a lot better in that area, which will help us in the MAC.”
