Field hockey falls to No.6 Iowa
Lynn Wloszek
Sophomore Alisa Folk’s two goals were not enough as the field hockey team lost at home to No. 6 Iowa 3-2 Sunday.
The loss and a 3-1 home conference win against Ohio Friday dropped CMU to 3-7.
“It is always hard to play back-to-back games, but we were really excited to play,” said Iowa coach Tracey Greisbaum. “I wish we would have had a chance to practice on the surface before the game, because it was hard adjusting to this field.”
Iowa was coming off a 1-0 loss at No. 5 Michigan Saturday. Greisbaum was not pleased with her team’s performance Sunday.
“I was disappointed in our team’s inability to make changes,” she said. “Our skills were not clean and sharp today, and we did not play up to our potential.”
Iowa opened the scoring at 18:29 on a goal by Pattie Gillern. Gillern scored again at 15:40, her 13th of the season. Folk answered with her sixth goal of the season with 9:30 left in the half.
Folk tied the game at two seven minutes into the second half. The Chippewas had a goal disallowed, before Kelly Slattery scored the game-winner, on a pass from Jessica Zozky.
The two goals by the Chippewas were the most allowed by Iowa since a 3-1 loss to No. 2 North Carolina Sept. 9.
“I always feel our offense can score, but their goalkeeper is a U.S.-level goalkeeper and I was happy we scored a couple goals on her,” said CMU coach Cristy Freese. “(Junior forward Kristy) Reed struggled a little bit with an old injury, but both her and (senior forward) Tarah (Trottier) created a lot of opportunities for Alisa to score.”
Folk said she realized how close CMU was to upsetting the Hawkeyes.
“It shows that we can compete with any team,” Folk said. “We played well, but it is disappointing because we definitely had the chance to win.”
Freshman Danielle Frank started her second consecutive game, allowing three goals on eight shots.
“She stayed in the game because it’s good for her confidence as a young goalkeeper,” Freese said.
Folk said CMU is one or two steps away from being very successful.
“We have to just work on the little things,” Folk said. “If we fix those, hopefully we can win the rest of our games.”
The Chippewas outshot Iowa 14-8, and had an edge in penalty corners, 11-7.
“The Indiana, Syracuse and Kent State games are all games we had opportunities to win and we didn’t,” Freese said. “The team does really well at bouncing back from games like that.”
CMU won in a come-from-behind victory at home against Ohio Friday. The win evened CMU’s MAC record at 2-2.
Chelsea Mearing opened the scoring 2:21 into the game, assisted by Elizabeth Holtzman. The Bobcats held the lead throughout the half. Reed scored to tie the game at 50:41 in the second half.
Folk scored the game-winner at 55:24, and Trottier scored to close the game. Frank picked up her first MAC win, making five saves on six shots.
The Chippewas head to Michigan State for a non-conference game with Stanford Tuesday.
Stanford is 3-7 overall, and plays in the West Division of the NorPac Conference. Cara-Lynn Lopresti leads Stanford with four goals and 10 points. Lyndsay Erickson has 10 points in the last six games.
The game begins at 11 a.m.
