Chippewas end season with win at Ball State
The Central Michigan field hockey team closed out the regular season in a desirable fashion.
In its last game of the season, the team used a pair of penalty corner goals from sophomore Erin Dye to beat Ball State 3-1 Sunday in Muncie, Ind.
“I think we definitely wanted to show Ball State that the last time we played was just a fluke and we wanted to step up and play hard for the full 70 minutes,” said senior back Kim Sihota.
CMU (5-13, 3-7 MAC) got on the board first when Dye found the back of the net on the team’s fifth penalty corner in as many minutes. She added her second goal of the game in the 25th minute off another corner.
“We had a lot of corners in the beginning of the game, and I thought the players on the field did a nice job adjusting to what play would work,” said head coach Cristy Freese. “Erin took a direct shot and scored, and when we ran the same play again, she scored again.”
BSU (6-13, 2-8 MAC) cut the Chippewas lead to one in the 28th minute on a goal by Elizabeth Blaum.
“Ball State is a good team and was able to close the gap,” Freese said. “We had a couple of close chances and it felt a little like that first game when we played them.”
In the team’s last meeting, CMU blew a late 2-1 lead and went on to lose the game after a pair of shots by forward Devanny Kuhn got past junior goaltender Anastasia Netto.
Senior Pam Seufert capitalized in the 63rd minute Sunday to pad the team’s lead over a BSU team without Kuhn, arguably one of its best offensive weapons. She did not play Saturday against Miami or Sunday against CMU.
“The win means a lot and puts us in a better place in the tournament, giving us a better chance to move further into the tournament,” Sihota said.
With the win, and Missouri State’s 4-2 loss to Kent State, CMU moves into fourth in the MAC, a spot they’d much rather have heading into the conference tournament.
“The kids are in good moods and it gives us the fourth seed, so we’ll play either Ball State or Missouri State,” Freese said. “Coming into the weekend it’s what we wanted to accomplish.”
Saturday
The Chippewas opened the game strong Saturday, heading into the half with the scored knotted at 0, thanks to a strong performance by Netto. She stopped nine shots in the contest, including five in the first ten minutes of play.
Miami came out of the half with a little more offense, and capitalized on a couple CMU turnovers.
Kate Snyder set up Marry Hull in the 43rd minute to break a scoreless tie. Hull returned the favor less than a minute later, setting up Snyder to take a 2-0 lead.
Snyder finished the offense in the 59th minute to secure the 3-0 Miami victory.
In her seventh shutout of the season, Sarah Mueller needed to come up with a singular save and she did on a shot by freshman Bailey McKeon.
After splitting the weekend, the team will head back home to prepare for the MAC tournament scheduled to start Thursday at the CMU Field Hockey Complex in Mount Pleasant.
