Not so sweet sixteen, CMU downed again
There were many opportunities for the field hockey team to score in the home loss to No. 8 Michigan Tuesday.
The Chippewas had 11 offensive penalty corners and eight shots on goal, but could not convert any of them.
The result was a 2-0 loss.
“I am not happy right now,” said coach Cristy Freese. “Our team came out strong for the first 10 minutes, then after that our effort and play was disappointing. It didn’t matter that we were playing Michigan, I expect to see the effort that we gave against Virginia every time we play and we didn’t do that.”
The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead when junior Jill Civic scored on a penalty corner at the 9:34 mark of the first half. The score remained 1-0 until late in the half when the Wolverines leading goal scorer Katie Morris scored her sixth goal of the season giving U-M a 2-0 lead.
Freese said that she is not one to make excuses, but thinks the ball might have affected play in the first half.
“Both teams struggled in the first half, the ball really seemed to be sticking to players’ sticks,” Freese said. “It might have been the heat and humidity combined with the fact that it was a new ball. Still the ball was a quality game ball, we should have capitalized on our penalty corner opportunities.”
The second half of the game went scoreless. CMU took three shots and had two offensive penalty corner opportunities in the half, but weren’t able to capitalize.
Senior Erica Takach was disappointed with the effort.
“We didn’t show the effort of a winning team,” she said. “Michigan wasn’t as talented as last season’s team and we have the talent to beat them. Our play today was very disappointing; we need to play with effort for the entire 70 minutes of every game.”
The Chippewas held Michigan to 10 shots, an improvement from the 42 they allowed in last season’s 11-0 loss.
Junior Danielle Frank faced six shots on goal, allowing two goals and recording four saves. Takach led CMU with two shots on goal. Junior Alicia Balanesi’s four game scoring streak ended in the loss.
Michigan goalkeeper Beth Riley recorded six saves.
The Chippewas swept the Mid-American Conference individual honors this week with Balanesi being named the Offensive Player of the Week and Frank named the Defensive Player of the Week.
Balanesi has garnered the honor for the second consecutive week. She scored two goals and had two assists in two games last week. Balanesi scored the game winner against Virginia and assisted on the team’s first goal against the Cavaliers.
Frank recorded five saves and allowed one goal in the win against Virginia. She had four saves against Northwestern.
