Field hockey stuns No. 7 Kent State
Sophomore Kristy Reed scored with less than four minutes remaining in double overtime giving the field hockey team a 2-1 upset victory over No. 7 Kent State Friday.
Senior Maria Neiswender began the scoring four minutes into the game on a penalty corner with sophomore Michelle Fogle and senior Jeanette Spero earning assists.
Kent State’s Gillian Wladichuk scored 10 minutes into the second half to tie the game.
The game then went into overtime, where both teams played with six players and a goalie.
“I told them at the break between regulation and overtime, that they don’t just want to be satisfied with taking Kent into overtime,” said Head Coach Cristy Freese. “I told them we want to win. That’s how this team talks.”
Two minutes into the second overtime, Kent State’s Lauren Grandinetti was given a red card for hitting a Chippewas player with her stick.
Freese said overtime is tough to play from a physical standpoint.
“Overtime is so physically demanding,” she said. “Another thing is defensively, I’m not going to make a sub in the backfield and I thought everyone stepped up and just played great.”
During both overtimes, Reed was up and down the field, nearly converting on several chances. She took three of the Chippewas seven shots in the game.
Reed’s scored her team hight ninth goal on Kent State keeper Jessica Creeden.
With seven minutes to go in the second overtime, the Chippewas defense gave up a penalty shot to Rebecca Rahaim. Senior goalie Janel Spero dove to her right stopping the shot. Spero had four saves in her 10th win of the season.
“We had seen her take a penalty stroke on film,” Spero said. “She went to the right on the film so I just remembered that before she took the shot.”
The CMU winning streak was extended to three games as the Chippewas improved to 10-4 overall and 4-1 in the MAC.
The win should put the Chippewas in the Top 20 as chosen by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.
The Chippewas have won 10 games for the first time since 1997 when the team went 10-11.
“Now teams are going to be gunning for us so it’s going to make it a little tougher on us,” Freese said. “I think Kent was totally prepared for this game but we played aggressive and that’s just what we need to keep doing. We are going to make mistakes playing like that, but I would rather do it playing aggressive.”
It was the last time the seniors would get to play against the Golden Flashes at home. The win was special to the seniors because they have never beaten Kent State.
“We finally beat them,” said Jeanette Spero. “We had to make a little bit of adjustment because Maria (Neiswender) usually plays sweeper and in overtime she was playing leftback. We haven’t practiced seven-on-seven since last season so we just had to remember what we did last year.”
Jeanette said the Chippewas finally will get respect from MAC opponents.
“I don’t think teams are going to take us as lightly any more,” she said.
The Chippewas host Northwestern at 2 p.m. Friday at sunny Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
