Field hockey drops final home game to Northwestern, beats Missouri State
[wzslider autoplay="true" interval="5000" height="600" transition="'slide'" info="true" lightbox="true"]Field Hockey fell to No. 13 Northwestern Sunday 2-0 as the seniors took the field one last time.
The Wildcats came out shooting to start of the game, putting up three early shots with one going in four minutes into the half.
The Chippewas took two shots early in the game, and these would be the only shots they would get off in the first half.
At the 32-minute mark, the Wildcats struck again, scoring once more off a penalty corner, putting them ahead 2-0 going into the half. As the second half got stated, both the Chippewas and the Wildcats were gifted with penalty corners. Neither team scored.
“Statistically, by the end of the game it was a very close game," said head coach Cristy Freese. "Obviously you saw the difference in the game; the game was execution of the penalty corners."
With six minutes left to go in the game, the Chippewas earned another penalty corner, as the ball bounced off many Chippewas sticks, a hopeful shot was taken by junior Jordyn Brengosz that would be blocked.
With under a minute left in the game, the team had one last chance at a goal with a penalty-corner but remained unsuccessful.
At the end of the game, the Chippewas remained scoreless as the Wildcats maintained control of the final seconds.
“Northwestern is a very good team and I thought we settled down better in the second half defensively,” Freese said. “It has kind been the theme of our season; we have to score more goals.”
SATURDAY
CMU dominated the first half of Saturday's game against Missouri State in terms of scoring opportunities with six shots, three of them on goal to MSU's one shot off and eight corners to MSU's one.
The Chippewas failed to score on any of their shots, though.
It was different in the second half. On their ninth corner attempt of the day, the Chippewas scored on a goal by Brengosz 45 minutes into the game to take the lead 1-0.
Neither team would score again until the 70-minute mark, when senior forward Bailey McKeon scored on a penalty shot to expand the lead to 2-0 and seal the victory for the Chippewas.
“In the second half, we kind of took the game over a little bit offensively and now we go on next weekend to play for a regular season championship," Freese said.
The Chippewas wrap up their season next weekend as they face Miami (Ohio) at noon Thursday in Oxford, Ohio. They will again face the RedHawks in Oxford for first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
If CMU beats Miami paired with a Kent State loss, CMU will be co-champions of the MAC regular-season title. The Golden Flashes have the No. 1 seed in the MAC tournament with a win against the Chippewas earlier in the season.
