Team drops opener at Indiana, 1-0; Northwestern next
Greg Burghardt
Senior Laura Plese is trying to fill some big shoes as goalkeeper for the field hockey team.
She made three saves in her first career start in a 1-0 season-opening loss at Indiana Saturday. Plese replaced the graduated Janel Spero, the MAC Tri-Player of the Year last season and an All-Region performer.
“(She) was very solid in goal for her first start, and I thought she played like a veteran keeper,” Head Coach Cristy Freese said. “I thought our defense was good at making Indiana take shots from the side, which made it easier for Laura to make saves.”
Freese was pleased with the game despite the team’s inability to score.
“I thought we came out with a solid performance, but in the first 20 minutes, we let Indiana outhustle us,” Freese said. “I do not think we played poorly, I just felt we could have executed better. The bottom line is that we had opportunities on offense, we just could not score.”
The team will try to even its record with another Big Ten road game at Northwestern 1 p.m. Sunday.
Although the Chippewas had 10 shots in the game Saturday, only four of them got to IU senior goalie Molly Pulkrabek.
Junior Kristy Reed took three of CMU’s shots on goal. The Chippewas also had a 7-3 edge in penalty corners.
“(Pulkrabek) is very, very experienced, and she is a tough one,” Freese said. “I knew going into these first games that we were going to play some teams that are very tough defensively.”
Kayla Bashore scored the game-winner late in the second half, with Lydia Schrott and Mallory Reabold assisting.
“On our free hits we were making the same play every time, so at half we talked about it and went out and made the adjustment,” Freese said. “The next step is making those adjustments on the field without having to take a time-out.”
Offensively, CMU found it hard to get the ball out of its defensive end.
“Our defense was not stopping Indiana in the midfield, and we were letting them get into our defensive zone,” Freese said. “So we were always having to start our attack from the 20-yard line and having to move the ball eighty yards, instead of getting the ball at the 50 and playing with a shorter field.”
Freese expects improved offensive execution against the Wildcats.
“Our forwards and our midfielders will get the ball better against Northwestern because we are going to practice it and I know they’ll do it,” she said. “It is disappointing to lose, and I want the team to be disappointed that they lost, but not frustrated because that’s not going to get us anywhere.”
Freese said the team needs to make pace adjustments for the future and thinks they will be successful at converting on future offensive opportunities.
“We need to execute quicker and when we have those opportunities in the circle we need to take good shots on goal,” Freese said. “We cannot get ahead of ourselves and just think about scoring, we need to think about how we’re going to create those opportunities and then we will score more.”
