Field hockey finishes out non-conference play against New Hampshire, Iowa
The Central Michigan women’s field hockey team wraps up non-conference play this weekend, hosting New Hampshire at 2 p.m. Saturday and Iowa noon Sunday at the CMU Field Hockey Complex.
“I know our kids like to play at home,” said CMU head coach Cristy Freese. “We get pretty energized playing on our field. That helps us, but we’re still playing two very tough teams and we have to bring our A game.”
NHU is coming off a two-game winning streak, led by junior forward Hayley Rausch who earned Athlete of the Week honors last week.
Rausch contributed a goal and an assist in each of the team’s wins last weekend, and leads the team in assists (five) and is tied for most goals (four).
All time, CMU is winless against both opponents, with an 0-2 record against New Hampshire and a 0-5 record against Iowa.
“Our strength is going to be our team, not one or two individual players, but how we play together,” Freese said. “That is going to help us be successful this weekend.”
The Chippewas are coming off a 2-1 victory Sunday against Saint Louis University.
Freshman Alexis Gersbasch put the Chippewas on the board in 24th minute with her first career goal and SLU answered back in the closing seconds of the half.
The game looked like it was going into overtime when CMU was awarded a penalty corner in the 70th minute, and they capitalized.
Senior Amanda von Leer picked up her first goal of the season, sending the penalty corner shot into the back of the cage.
Injuries
A couple Chippewas were banged up on the trip to Saint Louis, but Freese expects them to be at full strength to play Saturday.
Freshman Abby Roth twisted her ankle, causing her to miss practice Tuesday, and junior Paulina Lee hurt her hand. Freese said neither were serious injuries and both are expected to play this weekend.
Following the team’s 3-0 loss against UC-Davis Saturday, Freese changed up the team’s formation, adding an extra defender to the field.
“We felt we were putting our defense under maybe too many stressful situations, so we tried to balance that up a little bit,” Freese said.
The change was made to help the team’s defense, including the last line of defense, goaltender Anastasia Netto.
In her five games (four starts), Netto recorded 2.96 goals against average, making 35 saves and giving up 14 goals.
“Anna has established herself as the starter,” Freese said. “She still has things to learn because this is her first year starting, but what we want to see from her is her learning from the mistakes she might make in a game.”
