The Central Michigan women’s field hockey team came up short for the second consecutive game, falling to Miami 3-2 at the CMU Field Hockey Complex Sunday.

With the loss, the Chippewas dropped to 3-9 overall and 1-3 in the Mid-American Conference.

Miami forward Mary Hull scored her eighth goal of the season on an odd-man rush in the ninth minute of play to put the RedHawks on the board Despite logging the majority of the first half in CMU’s defensive end, Miami only capitalized once on six shots. Netto had to come up big on a couple shots, including six penalty corner shots.

“In the first half, Miami was sort of having their way with us,” said CMU head coach Cristy Freese.

Senior Kim Sihota answered back in the final seconds of the first half. Her sister, junior Brooke Sihota, sent a penalty corner shot into the box, and Kim deflected the ball into the net, recording her first goal of the season.

“We really just felt there was a couple things that we could have done a little bit better all over the field where we just weren’t stepping,” Freese said. “I thought we started the second half really well. We had chances early to go up 3-1.”

Two minutes into the second half, freshman Juliana Makrinos redirected a cross from Paulina Lee to give CMU its first lead of the game, though it was short lived. Running down the center of the field, forward Jackie Nguyen set Hull up for her second goal of the contest.

Following a CMU timeout with less than eight minutes to play, Miami’s Kate Snyder scored her sixth goal of the season, which would end up being the game winner.

“I think after the third goal from the other team we broke down a little when we could have come right back and scored a goal afterwards,” Makrinos said.

Freese said the team still needs to be more disciplined defensively, but they have made significant improvements.

“I thought today, after yesterday’s game, (Anna) came back a lot stronger,” Freese said. “We want her to be confident and aggressive without stepping out of her position.”

Netto finished with five saves on Miami’s eight shots on goal.

Saturday

CMU suffered a heartbreaker Saturday in a 3-2 overtime loss against Ball State. BSU scored first when forward Kristen Falk intercepted a failed clear attempt in the 12th minute.

Erin Dye tied the game in the second half, and sophomore Brittany Burga gave the Chippewas the lead in the final two minutes of play.

The Cardinals responded quickly. Junior Devanny Kuhn found the back of the net with 15 seconds left in regulation and again just over a minute into overtime, her MAC-leading 10th and 11th tallies of the season.

The Chippewas hit the road for the next three weeks of play before coming back home for the MAC tournament. They will travel to Springfield, Mo., for a two-game series against Missouri State Saturday and Sunday.

After playing three weekends straight at home, Freese said the adjustment will be a challenge.

“I think when we approach the second and third weekend in a row, I think it’ll be important for us during the week to really make sure we’ve recovered as we hit the road again,” she said.