Field hockey falls to Indiana in overtime

Brian Manzullo

Indiana junior forward Alina Valenti passed the ball up to junior Meg O'Connell in overtime Sunday.

From the top of the circle, she saw an opening and wound-up.

The shot just missed the left leg of CMU goaltender Melinda Curran, and was aligned just enough to deflect into the goal after bouncing off the right post to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 win.

It took nearly 80 minutes for a winner to be decided in Sunday's defensive stalemate at the CMU Field Hockey Complex.

Although CMU managed 25 shots and 16 penalty corners through overtime, the core of Indiana's defense was too strong to penetrate.

"We just couldn't score goals at all," said junior Kim Erasmus. "We couldn't find the back of the net. I think our defense played pretty well, we stepped up our game."

Central (1-8 overall, 0-3 Mid-American Conference) removed all evidence of its previous struggles by keeping up with Indiana's energetic offense. Central was able to break up passes to thwart scoring attempts throughout regulation. However, Indiana broke up CMU's efforts as well.

"I thought early in the first half, we did not do a good job on our penalty corners of surrounding their goaltender," said coach Cristy Freese.

The frustration of the season so far kept the team from appreciating its defensive efforts.

"I told our kids, 'You know if this was our first game of the season, we would feel a little different than the ninth game of the season,'" said Freese. "At this time of year when we have only one win, it's harder to walk off and feel like, 'OK, we outplayed them,' it wasn't. Not with where we are now. Which is disappointing but we'll be able to bounce back."

Samantha Sandham led the offensive attack for CMU with nine shots. Sophomore Katie Griswold and O'Connell led Indiana's offense with three shots each.

"I think our confidence should be good because we played well," Freese said. "As a coaching staff we'll go watch this tape and we'll be excited about how well we played and disappointed with how many (goals) we could've put in."

Erasmus tried to find meaning in the tough loss.

"We know we can keep a shutout," she said. "We can dominate the team, but we just got to show it by scoring goals."

CMU's next game is at 3 p.m. Friday at Miami University. Its next home game comes at 3 p.m. on Oct. 17 against Kent State.

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