Erika Schmitt put in overtime to land her team a win last night in Akron.
Ohio's goal leader had a hand in all three of the Bobcats' goals in their matchup with the Zips. Ohio won 3-2 in double overtime, landing the sixth seed in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, which starts Sunday.
Schmitt scored two goals, including the game-winner in the second minute of the second overtime, and had an assist to help the Bobcats (5-10-3, 5-5-1 MAC) get their first victory in six games.
Coach Stacy Strauss said that Schmitt's performance was a big part of the team's win.
I thought that she was dangerous consistently as an offensive player
Strauss said. She worked really hard.
Schmitt scored her first goal of the game in the 52nd minute of the match to put Ohio up 1-0.
Akron's Jessica Fix answered Schmitt's goal six minutes later to tie the game at 1-1. Jordan Clark gave the Zips (6-7-6, 1-6-4 MAC) the lead at 2-1, getting a goal past Jess MacLean in the 73rd minute.
The clock wound down on the Bobcats, but Amy Lower wasn't ready to go away yet, tying it up with a goal in the 87th minute and sending the game into overtime, setting up Schmitt's game-winning goal inthe second extra period.
Ohio's Maggie Rojas-Alford, who assisted on the winning score, was happy to launch her team into the tournament.
It feels great she said. We really needed this to go into the tournament. We want to have a good November.
MAC action earlier in the day had Ohio all set up to take the No. 6 seed in the tournament. Buffalo, which failed to make the tournament cut this season, blanked Kent State 3-0 to hand the Golden Flashes the No. 7 seed. Miami took top-seeded Ball State to overtime, but the Cardinals prevailed and took their second straight MAC regular-season championship, 2-1. The RedHawks fell to the No. 8 slot in the tournament.
Strauss said her team is feeling confident after the game tonight and will carry that into Sunday's quarterfinal matchup with Northern Illinois. The Huskies handed the Bobcats a 1-0 defeat earlier this season and upset the 'Cats in the quarterfinals of last year's MAC Tournament.
I'm really proud of the team and their effort Strauss said. We're certainly optimistic. We're going to be a lot for Northern to try to contain.
Schmitt and the team are looking forward to trying to knock the Huskies out of the postseason.
We have a long history with Northern Illinois; they knocked us out of the tournament last year
Schmitt said. It's somewhat personal' we owe them.
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