No. 5 Michigan at Central today
Lynn WloszekThe No. 5 Michigan field hockey team plays at Kelly/Shorts Stadium today having won its last six games.
The Wolverines are 9-3 overall after a 4-0 win against Indiana Sunday. U-M holds an all-time series lead at 22-14-2, and have won its last 13 games against the Chippewas.
Wolverines senior April Fronzoni leads the team with 12 goals, four assists and 28 points.
With only six games left in the regular season, CMU is focused on getting better.
“We just need to take it game by game, and continue to improve,” Foland said.
The game begins at 3 p.m.
Ball State’s Afton Hess was too much for CMU’s field hockey team Saturday in the Cardinals 4-3 overtime victory.
“It was an emotionally tough game,” said coach Cristy Freese. “It is important how we bounce back, because for 20 minutes we were unstoppable. We have that potential on offense and defense, we just need to work on putting it together for 70 minutes.”
Down 3-0, Hess then scored three unanswered goals to force overtime.
“(She) is an excellent player, and was able to get some really tough shots off,” Freese said. “Obviously we did not do a good job defending her.”
The loss put CMU at 4-8 overall, and fifth in the MAC at 2-3. Ball State is 6-8 overall and second in the MAC at 3-2.
“It was really good that we scored three goals in the first 25 minutes, but we got too comfortable with the lead,” senior midfielder Allison Foland said. “We needed to keep playing our game and keep our heads in it, but we didn’t.”
Senior Tarah Trottier scored first for CMU at the 11:59 mark. Junior Kristy Reed added two goals, and CMU led 3-2 at halftime. Hess then scored her third goal, setting the stage for Kristy Houghton’s game-winner 10:11 into overtime.
Freese took a lot of positives from the game despite the loss.
“Everything we did worked,” Freese said. “We created fast breaks, got through Ball State’s defense and put a lot of pressure on their defense.”
Freese said she is unhappy with the Chippewas inability to play a complete game.
“We should be able to hold a two goal lead,” Freese said. “We started playing not to lose instead of playing to win, and in the end Ball State’s defense settled down and played good against us.”
The Wolverines are 9-3 overall after a 4-0 win against Indiana Sunday. U-M holds an all-time series lead at 22-14-2, and have won its last 13 games against the Chippewas.
Wolverines senior April Fronzoni leads the team with 12 goals, four assists and 28 points.
With only six games left in the regular season, CMU is focused on getting better.
“We just need to take it game by game, and continue to improve,” Foland said.
