Subhed: Field hockey continues conference play
After picking up its first home win this season, Ohio field hockey can carry momentum back on the road, continuing their Mid-American Conference season against Kent State.
We're playing pretty well
coach Shelly Morris said. Things are really coming together for us ... with the way we're playing our attack and our defense.
The Bobcats (4-11 overall, 2-2 MAC) were defeated at home in their MAC season opener by the Golden Flashes (6-6, 4-1 MAC), a 2-0 shutout at Peggy Pruitt Field on Sept. 26.
The loss dropped Ohio to 17-31 all-time against Kent State, a team that the Bobcats have either beat, or had their season ended by, in the last four MAC Tournaments.
I think we had a lot of opportunities that we didn't capitalize on and they did Morris said. We're using that as motivation. We know this is a team we can beat. We just have to go after them
The Golden Flashes defeated Ohio in 2000 and 2002 for the MAC title, while Ohio took the championship game from Kent State in 2001. Last season, Ohio put out the Golden Flashes before suffering a loss to Louisville in the MAC Tournament championship game.
Ohio will have to be wary of a well-balanced Kent State team that is coming off an emotional 2-1 overtime win against Central Michigan. The Golden Flashes swept both the offensive and defensive MAC Player of the Week honors in the forms of midfielder Berber Rischen and goalkeeper Linz Markwart.
The Bobcats have a player of their own who earned accolades for last week's play. In games against Ohio State, Central Michigan and Ball State, midfielder Kristen Hann recorded four goals and an assist, earning the senior tri-captain Ohio Athlete of the Week honors.
Midfielder Erica Bundalo, who had four assists during last weekend's action and quarterbacked the Bobcats' corner situations, is now just three assists shy of the school's single-season assists record of 14. Lauren Mazziotto and Ali Johnstone both had 14 assists in 2001 and 2000, respectively.
It's good that our corner is working again
and we're getting out of our slump with that
Morris said. Hopefully
we'll carry that into this weekend because we had a lot of corners against Kent that we didn't capitalize on.
With 131 saves so far this season, goalkeeper Jennifer Cote is 19 saves shy of the No. 10 spot all-time for saves in a season. No Bobcat has broken that category's top 10 since 1995, when Melissa Diglio made 164 saves.
At this point
we're just taking it one game at a time
Morris said. We have some things we are trying to focus on with Kent and obviously we still have a good opportunity here to position ourselves well in the conference. We just need some wins to do that.
Ohio faces off against the Golden Flashes 11 a.m. Sunday. With a win the Bobcats have a chance to improve their MAC record to better than .500 for the first time this season.
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