Field Hockey ends MAC season with loss in tourney
The field hockey team lost to Kent State 3-2 in double overtime Saturday.
It was the third consecutive overtime game between the two teams.
The Golden Flashes jumped out to an early lead on a goal by Helen Jerdan.
With less than eight minutes to play and down by two, the Chippewas scored two goals on penalty corners to send the game into overtime.
Sophomore Kristy Reed scored her 13th goal of the season on a pass from senior Maria Neiswender to make it 2-1. With under five minutes to play, senior Jocelyn Gates scored to tie the game on a pass from Neiswender. Tess Meueleman scored the game winner late in the second overtime for Kent State.
“I never really thought we were out of the game when we were down by two goals,” said Head Coach Cristy Freese. “We called a timeout before our corner and we made a little bit of adjustment and then we scored twice on the same corner play.”
Down by two goals and the second half coming to a close, Freese was impressed with her team’s composure on the field.
“I could tell from the way they were talking on the field that we weren’t out of the game,” Freese said. “We have never been down two nothing before, but the way this team has been all year and I could tell everyone was still working hard on the field.”
Freese said the Chippewas success this season has showed the rest of the MAC that they are a good team.
“The biggest positive is that we have a team that is very much respected in this conference now,” Freese said. “We have established ourselves as a team that will not give up.”
With the loss, CMU is most likely done with its season, as the team still has an outside chance of making the NCAA Tournament.
“I am very proud of the team. It’s really hard to lose in overtime and I don’t think our kids have anything to feel down about,” Freese said. “We have had an incredible year and no single game defines our season.”
Neiswender, who along with junior Allison Foland was named to the MAC All-Tournament team, had mixed emotions on the game.
“I am sad that it was our last game,” Neiswender said. “But I am also happy because we played a strong game as a team.”
Neiswender had two points in the tournament and felt CMU battled back.
“It was big that we came back from two goals down,” she said. “We played really hard the whole game and we stayed together as a team.”
Neiswender is humbled by the honor of being named to the MAC All Tournament Team.
“It is really nice to be recognized and it must have been really hard to pick just two players,” she said. “Without the help of everyone else I couldn’t have done it and it’s really nice to be honored as a defender.”
