The Ohio field hockey team earned a split on the road during the season's first full weekend of Mid-American Conference play against Miami and Louisville.
The Bobcats (3-9 overall, 1-2 MAC) won 3-1 Friday in decisive fashion against rival Miami (4-7, 0-4 MAC) but could not defeat defending MAC champion Louisville (5-7, 3-1 MAC) Saturday, losing by a score of 6-1 in a rematch of last year's MAC Tournament championship game.
Miami opened the scoring just four minutes into the contest, but the Bobcats tied the game nine minutes later when forward Chelsea Mearig found the back of the net for the fourth time this season. Back Amanda Arnold assisted on the play.
I usually just stick-stop on corners but this time I got the ball from Arnold and saw that I had the shot
Mearig said.
Mearig broke the tie in the second half, chipping a goal over a sprawled Miami goalkeeper. Forward Lindsay Rothenberger earned an assist on the play, her fifth of the season.
(Mearig) didn't get a lot of action last weekend so we were working on repositioning her to use her more coach Shelly Morris said. I think she did a good job on the attack and that was a difference maker.
Arnold would give the Bobcats a 3-1 lead and put the game out of the RedHawks' reach on a penalty shot with a little more than 15 minutes to play. It was Arnold's second penalty shot of the season and first conversion.
We were really looking for our first conference win Mearig said. We knew we had the talent to beat Miami
so we came out strong to get the win.
On Saturday, Ohio fell behind by two goals in the first 21 minutes of play before Rothenberger cut the Ohio deficit. The teams would enter the break with the Bobcats trailing 2-1.
We came out of the gate running and we played a really good first 10 minutes
Morris said. A loose ball led to a fast break
which led to a corner and then they scored kind of a fluky goal. All of a sudden
all the energy we created the first 10 minutes was deflated.
The Cardinals dominated the second half by scoring four more goals to produce the same result as last year's MAC Tournament championship game -a Louisville win.
I think we mentally just lost it a bit
Morris said. We were pressuring well
but there was a lot of midfield play and they would get breaks and score on them.
Louisville outshot Ohio 14-6 and goalkeeper Jennifer Cote made eight saves in the contest, bringing her season total to 104.
The Bobcats will play their last non-conference game of the season when they play host to Big Ten and interstate foe Ohio State 3 p.m. Tuesday at Peggy Pruitt Field.
17
