Takach nets game-winner
Senior Erica Takach scored her second game-winning goal of the season and the sixth goal of her career Sunday in a 3-2 overtime win against Missouri State.
The field hockey team swept its Mid-American Conference foe to start the MAC season undefeated. CMU is 5-3 overall and 2-0 in the MAC.
“I am so excited right now, it was a great goal for me and my team,” Takach said. “I was in the circle and was trying to draw a corner opportunity; since I was so close I figured I might as well shoot it and see what happens.
“My parents were in attendance which makes the feeling even better, they live and die by my field hockey and it was great for them to see the goal.”
CMU is 3-0 in overtime games this season.
“Our team keeps getting more and more confident with these overtime wins,” said coach Cristy Freese. “You can see our team and the change in our play in the latter stages of the game, we are fighting hard right now and showing our resiliency.”
The Bears scored the first two goals of the game before CMU scored three unanswered.
MSU took a 2-0 lead less than eight minutes into the second half when Amanda Miyashita scored her second goal of the match.
CMU finally scored at the 13 minute mark on a goal by sophomore Allyson Doan. Senior Alisa Folk recorded her first assist of the season on the goal.
The Chippewas tied the game at two when junior Alicia Balanesi scored on an assist from freshman Kelly Jordan. Balanesi’s goal was her team leading seventh of the season.
It was only 54 seconds into overtime when Takach scored on a redirection off a MSU player.
“That goal symbolized our team’s strength and confidence,” Takach said. “We weren’t mentally focused at the beginning of the year, our team struggled to be tough. Our team was down 0-2 and we came back to win a tough game.”
A dominant CMU defense shut out Missouri State 4-0 Saturday.
The Chippewas out-shot the Bears 25-14 and controlled the ball for most of the game.
Junior Danielle Frank had nine saves in the 4-0 win. The shutout was Frank’s first of the season and sixth of her career.
“The team worked really hard on defense and executed on offense,” Freese said. “We were a little sloppy at the end of the game, but overall we played well.”
Jordan scored her third and fourth goals of the season in the win.
NOTES: Because of a scheduling change, CMU played a two-game home series against MSU this season and will play two games at Missouri State next season. MSU was a late addition to the MAC and caused some scheduling conflicts.
Freese said this sort of schedule change doesn’t happen often, but felt it would benefit both schools.
“It is hard to play the same team two days in a row. It is something that I would not like our team to do,” she said. “But the decision to play a two-game home series made sense economically and time-wise for both schools.”
