Spartans surge past Chippewas in second half, winning 2-1
What could be worse then a three-game losing streak?
How about the four-game losing streak the Central Michigan field hockey team finds itself in after losing Wednesday 2-1 to Michigan State.
CMU team captain, senior midfielder Paulina Lee opened the scoring on a play assisted by freshman fielder Cayleigh Immelman eight minutes into in the first half.
MSU wasted its best scoring opportunity when freshman Becky Stiles missed wide left on a penalty stroke. CMU held a one goal lead against the Spartans after the first 35 minutes.
Junior goalkeeper Anastasia Netto stopped four shots, keeping the Spartans offense at bay.
“We looked at it as just another game and everyone came out excited to play,” Netto said. “Two halves mean two games and we got to be ready to play our best in both.”
Then the second half started.
MSU took charge in the second half and pushed back at the CMU defense. Then they tied when Midfielder Adelle Lever scored off a rebound that started as a corner.
MSU continued to rack up the scoring chances. Spartans midfielder Heather Howie lobbed the ball between two defenders into the shooting circle where sophomore midfielder Katherine Jamieson took a shot past Netto, giving the Spartans the 2-1 lead.
Head coach Cristy Freese immediately called a timeout after the goal.
“I called the timeout for two reasons,” Freese said. “First to calm down the team and second to coach the defense that was caught standing around.”
The timeout seemed to give the Chippewas new life as they started to push the ball forward. However, the offense struggled to get quality shots off corners and often found the ball trapped in the corners of the field.
“Michigan State can run an few different defenses and they made adjustments at half,” Freese said. “ On corners our insert has to be harder and our execution quicker.”
Junior Erin Dye’s aggressive play in the scoring circle created a chance to tie, but Spartans goalkeeper Molly Cassidy made a glove save to preserve the lead.
“I guess my aggressive style of play comes from when I played soccer,” Dye said. “State is a great team, but we could have won today.”
The Chippewas failed to generate any more scoring chances.
“I feel like we missed a really good opportunity today,” Freese said. “The short week to prepare was not a factor in today’s result.”
CMU now tries to stop its current four-game losing streak against Ball State at noon on Saturday in Muncie, Ind. A win would bring the Chippewas one step closer to reaching a .500 record while also bringing Freese one win away from the 200-win mark while coaching at CMU.
