Field hockey shares title
The field hockey team shares the regular season MAC championship after splitting its last two regular season games at Ohio and Kent State during the weekend.
The No. 16 Chippewas are 14-6 overall and 6-3 in the MAC, and will share the title with Louisville after falling to No. 11 Kent State 2-1 in overtime on Saturday.
CMU has the second seed heading into the Tournament behind Louisville, which has the head-to-head advantage over the Chippewas.
CMU will play the winner of Kent State and Miami.
Sophomore Kristy Reed gave the Chippewas the lead against Kent State on her team high, 12th goal of the season after a scoreless first half.
“I thought we played very tough against Kent,” said Head Coach Cristy Freese. “Each team had chances to win the game in regulation.”
The chances Freese said were shots that hit the post or rolled wide of the cage.
Jennifer Melnyk scored two goals on two penalty strokes for the Golden Flashes. The Chippewas outshot Kent State overall 14-11, but were outshot 4-0 in overtime.
“I thought Janel played very well in goal,” Freese said. “It’s extremely hard to stop penalty strokes.”
Freese is excited for the MAC Tournament this weekend in Miami, Ohio.
“To see everyone work this hard is always a positive,” Freese said. “After the Ohio game, we knew we had at least a share of the title, so it took some pressure off of us.”
Freese felt her team was ready for Kent State.
“I thought we were really focused going into the game,” Freese said. “Maybe this game will help us refocus a little bit more on the MAC Tournament.”
The Chippewas beat Ohio 3-1 behind a three-point performance from junior Tarah Trottier Friday.
Trailing by a goal, senior Meg Lewis scored on pass from Trottier. Trottier added the game winner less than two minutes into the second half.
Kristy Reed scored her 11th goal to close out the scoring.
This has been a record season for the Chippewas. The Chippewas 14 wins are the most since 1985 when they went 16-5-1 under Mary Bottaro. Cristy Freese became the winningest field hockey coach in CMU history and the Chippewas won their first regular season MAC title.
Senior Janel Spero led CMU in her final year in net. She led the MAC in minutes played, save percentage and goals against average. Spero also had five shutouts this season and is fourth on the career shutout list with 12.
In just her second season of play, sophomore Kristy Reed added offense for the Chippewas. Her 12 goals are tops on the team and second highest in the MAC.
Senior Meg Lewis had six goals, two assists and was named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association North/South Senior All-Star game as a midfielder. 1
