Chippewas split weekend series against Missouri State
Central Michigan split its series with Missouri State after losing 1-0 against the Bears Sunday at the Plaster Sports Complex in Springfield, Mo.
The game’s lone goal came in the 18th minute on Missouri State’s fourth consecutive penalty corner. Junior Casey Bayliss crossed the ball to senior Amanda Miyashita, who scored her second goal of the season, beating junior goalkeeper Anastasia Netto from 10 yards out.
Netto finished with 10 saves on 11 shots on goal in her 12th start of the season.
“(Anna) played well this weekend, but I thought she played really well today, coming up with some big saves for us,” Freese said.
On the opposite end of the field, sophomore goaltender Stephanie Anderson recorded her second shutout of the season, saving all six of CMU’s shots on goal.
CMU (4-10, 2-4 Mid-American Conference) had two scoring chances in the closing minutes of play.
Following a CMU timeout, Anderson saved a penalty corner by senior Amanda von Leer.
On the second consecutive penalty corner, the Chippewas thought they tied the game. Senior Kim Sihota caught a deflection off Anderson and sent it into the back of the cage, but the referee waived it off.
“The ref said it hit (Kim’s) body and she’s the one that has the whistle so we had to deal with it,” Freese said. “Kim worked hard to create some offense for us and we just fell short today.”
Missouri State improved to 1-5 in the conference with the win at Plaster Sports Complex, the only turf field still used in the MAC.
“The challenge down here is more the field than anything else,” Freese said. “It’s just a slow field and you have to come down and do the best you can.”
The longer playing surface slows down the ball speed, changing the game speed and strategy for penalty corners.
“The ball moves a lot slower on this surface and it’s harder to dribble up, so we have to string a lot more passes together,” Sihota said.
Saturday
CMU won the opening game of the weekend Saturday, beating the Bears 4-2 despite two MSU attempts to cut its two-point lead.
Freshman Juliana Makrinos recorded two assists in the first half, setting up freshman Alexis Gersbach and sophomore Emily Girasole on each of their goals to take a 2-0 lead.
Miyashita scored her first goal of the season for MSU in the 28th minute of play, but sophomore Erin Dye returned the favor, scoring her third goal of the season to put the Chippewas back up by two.
In the second half, Kristi O’Connor cut the CMU lead back to one goal, but Dye found the back of the net again to put the game away.
