Chippewas jump out to early lead, win first game against Missouri State
The Central Michigan women's field hockey team won the first of a two-game weekend series against Missouri State 4-2 Saturday at the Plaster Sports Complex in Springfield, Mo.
CMU (4-9, 2-3 Mid-American Conference) scored the first two goals of the game before the 20-minute mark. Freshman Juliana Makrinos set up Alexis Gersbach in the eighth minute and Emily Girasole in the 19th minute to give the team a 2-0 lead.
“I thought we came out strong,” said Coach Cristy Freese. “Juliana’s a good little player in front of the goalkeeper, and I thought she did a nice job.”
Senior Amanda Miyashita and sophomore Kristi O’Connor provided the offense for the Bears, each time cutting CMU's lead to one, but sophomore Erin Dye bumped the lead back to two goals both times with her third and fourth goals of the season.
“(Erin’s) strength is her shot and she was able to really control it, which obviously helped our offense today,” Freese said.
CMU outshot MSU 11-8 and won the penalty corners column 8-6.
In an evenly matched game, junior goaltender Anastasia Netto made four saves on six shots on net.
“I think we need to look at the game tape and be ready to make adjustments,” Freese said. “We made some defensive mistakes so there’s a lot we can improve on from today.”
The Chippewas will try and get back to .500 in the MAC when they play game two of the season series against Missouri State at noon Sunday at the Plaster Sports Complex.
