The football team wasn’t the only Ohio squad to leave Oxford empty-handed.
Miami came through on the field hockey pitch to win a share of the Mid-American Conference with a 3-1 win against the Bobcats, ending Ohio’s three-game winning streak against the RedHawks.
Ohio started off quickly, as senior Laura Mastro buried the feed from fellow senior Cathryn Altdoerffer off a penalty corner in the 10th minute. But Miami answered 13 minutes later, when sophomore Ali Froede capitalized on a pass from freshman Leni Gross.
But after an even half of play, Miami took over in the final 35 minutes.
RedHawk senior Olivia Miller scored her team-high eighth goal of the season in the 47th minute. Four minutes later, senior Taylor Brown was knocked out of the game for 10 minutes with a yellow card, putting Miami up a player.
Ohio survived having a player down but couldn’t hold off the RedHawks much longer.
Miami sophomore Valentina Neira took a pass from junior Emily Gruesser and scored on the breakaway less than a minute after Brown was allowed to return to the field for Miami’s third goal of the game, which is the most the Bobcats have given up since a 6-0 loss to Syracuse on Aug. 26.
Despite the loss, the spirits are high with the team and they look forward to a rematch with Miami next Friday in the MAC Tournament.
“We’re all really excited,” Brown said. “It’s going to be a really good week of practice and we’re just really pumped up to get a little revenge on Miami.”
Ohio coach Neil Macmillan also is looking forward to the opportunity to fine tune his team for a second go-around against the RedHawks.
“We’re all positive and excited,” Macmillan said. “We can look at the film and make a few adjustments. I always feel the team who loses makes more adjustments and makes more changes that are productive on the field.”
There were many positives to be brought out of the loss that dropped the Bobcats below 500 in MAC play, Macmillan said.
“I think when we look at it, we’ve got to make some changes,” Macmillan said. “We did some really, really good stuff in the first half. We had some really good, aggressive midfield play and that really lead to us going through their middle."
Brown, who recorded five shots in the game, agreed with her coach in regard to the team’s play.
“I thought we played really well as a team,” Brown said. “We’re really finding each other on passes and things. There were a few calls that didn’t go our way that I think changed the momentum of the game a little bit. That was frustrating, but overall we played really well together.”
QUICK STATS:
-Senior Laura Mastro scored the only goal of the game for the Bobcats.
-Ohio allowed more than two goals for the first time since Aug. 26.
-Ali Froede, Olivia Miller and Valentina Neira each scored for Miami.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
