Field hockey beats Ball State 5-3, keeps MAC hopes alive
The field hockey team left open the possibility for its fourth overtime game this season when it allowed Ball State to tie the game in the 63rd minute Saturday.
But Central Michigan closed the door on the Cardinals quickly after.
Junior Abby Roth scored the tie-breaking goal in the 64th minute, sending a shot into the left side of the net, and Mary Alice Moore scored in the closing minutes to win beat BSU 5-3.
“After they scored that goal, we realized that it shouldn’t have happened and we needed to fire up and come back strong,” Roth said. “(The game) didn’t need to go (to overtime), and we knew we were good enough to prevent that from happening.”
It was the team’s first win in the Mid-American Conference this season.
”We’re happy for a win because we talked about it earlier in the week how we needed it,” head coach Cristy Freese said. “Every MAC game is going to be difficult. There’s not a lot of difference between teams.”
The first two goals each team scored were in a six-minute span, starting at the 10th minute by Ball State’s Tori Widrick.
CMU took the lead two minutes later when senior Erin Dye scored her team-leading sixth goal, and sophomore Cayleigh Immelman scored her first goal of the season.
BSU scored the last goal of the half in the 16th minute to tie the game.
“Ball State, offensively, is difficult to defend,” Freese said. “So, I think our team did a nice job battling back.”
Junior Erica Garwood scored her third goal in the last four games in the 45th minute to take a 3-2 lead for CMU.
Senior Anastasia Netto returned to starting goalkeeper after a one-game hiatus as a result of illness. She had a .727 save percentage in the game – .073 above her season average – and eight saves.
“I don’t think you can look at the three goals against her and say she necessarily had a poor game,” Freese said. “I thought she was pretty on (her game) today.”
Freese said Netto returned to practice Wednesday, though her status remained day-to-day.
CMU leaves its conference schedule Sunday to play Pacific at East Lansing.
