Freese: Team 'fell short' in regular season
The field hockey team played its last game of the regular season Sunday.
Following a 3-1 victory against Ball State in Muncie, Ind., CMU improved to 5-13 and 3-7 in the Mid-American Conference.
“I think overall, looking at the season we sort of felt we fell short and certainly there were some winnable games and we weren’t able to get the job done,” said head coach Cristy Freese.
At the season’s start, looking at the experience of the team, expectations for the team were not real high.
Out of the 20 players on roster, the 2010 team was made up of 10 freshmen (one redshirt) and three sophomores.
“I think we did pretty good with such a young team,” Freese said. “I really think Simone (Lazar) did a great job, especially as the season went on.”
Lazar, a midfielder, logged the most minutes of the freshmen this season (1162) and started in 17 of 18 games.
The experience factor was an issue all over the field.
After Melinda Curran graduated following the 2009 season, the team had a position to fill at starting goaltender with three candidates combining for one collegiate game.
Junior Anastasia Netto ended up with the starting title and finished 5-11 with a 2.70 goals against average. Her 91 saves is ranked second in the conference behind Ohio’s Courtney Seiders.
The schedule
The team opened the season with two big losses at the Champions Invitational against Michigan State and Louisville, two of the top teams in the nation.
“I think we started off just trying to get to know each other and then we got better together through the season,” said senior back Kim Sihota.
In their first game at home, the Chippewas beat Providence in overtime on a goal by freshman Bailey McKeon.
Later in the season the team played a six-game home stand, where it finished 1-5, including 1-3 against MAC teams. Then they hit the road for six games, finishing 2-4 in that stretch.
“When you have two or three or four games that could have gone either way, it’s a completely different feeling and different season if you win those games,” Freese said.
Offensively, the team sat at the bottom of the conference. CMU was ranked last in shots, goals and scoring average.
Sophomore Erin Dye led the offense with six goals and 14 points on 64 shots. Freshman Juliana Makrinos added three goals, while four players tallied two goals.
“We struggled in our offense, though we weren’t expected to do to well there,” Dye said. “We exceeded our expectations to a certain extent, but obviously didn’t get as many wins as we wanted.”
The MAC tournament will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the CMU Field Hockey Complex in Mount Pleasant.
