There was plenty of joy to go around at Pruitt Field Saturday.
It began after Brooke Edwards beat Kent State’s goalie in overtime in the Mid-American Conference field-hockey tournament final. That was when joy struck a team that had finally accomplished something it set out to do months ago: Win a championship.
From a pile of smiling women on the field to an excited coach Neil Macmillan’s venturing into the stands to be with his family, the occasion had all the elements one would expect of a championship celebration.
There was even an appearance of the “descending chicken” — a dance Cathryn Altdoerffer was happy to demonstrate soon after the team received its victory T-shirts.
“It’s just something goofy that we were doing in the locker room,” Altdoerffer said. “Neil wanted to see it. We told him about it, but we didn’t show it to him.
“I said, ‘If we win, I’ll show it to you.’ ”
The dance and everything that came with it could happen only after Edwards sent a pass from Altdoerffer past the opposing goaltender.
The score broke a tense 1-1 overtime tie between the two best teams in the MAC. It gave the Bobcats their fourth conference championship in six years.
Ohio will host Lafayette Tuesday in an NCAA Tournament play-in game.
“It was a great setup by Cathryn,” Edwards said. “They just collapsed on her. She put it down the middle and it went straight to me.
“All I heard was Neil in my ear saying ‘Pull right. Pull right. Pull right.’ So that’s what I did and just laid it right into the goal.”
The assist was Altdoerffer’s second of the game. With Ohio down 1-0 in the first half, she sent a pass to Taylor Brown, who promptly fired one past the goaltender to tie the score.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Altdoerffer said. “It’s just the best feeling.”
The Bobcats were fortunate enough to celebrate the 2011 championship on their home turf, a feat they had not accomplished since 2006. No player from that squad is still on the team, but the coach is still there.
Macmillan — who, in 2006, was in only his second year at the helm of Ohio field hockey — knows how beneficial it can be to play the conference tournament at home.
“We just do what we normally do,” Macmillan said. “I know there’s so much more riding on it, but you try to treat it as normal a game as you can.”
But Saturday’s game was not normal, and neither was the MAC semifinal match against Miami that preceded it.
That rivalry showdown was also decided by one goal. The game’s only score came courtesy of Jessica Jue. Katherine Fenzel earned the assist on the play.
“Jue really just sort of slipped it past the goalkeeper,” Macmillan said. “It wasn’t an amazing shot or anything. It was just good awareness of when the keeper was coming out and she put it in the corner.”
After Ohio’s win against Kent State on Saturday, the team continued to collect awards.
Goaltender Jen McGill, Jenna Green and Altdoerffer were named to the all-tournament team, and Andrea Biegalski was named the tournament MVP.
Ohio will be in action again Tuesday against Lafayette. After winning the Patriot League tournament, the Leopards earned the right to visit Pruitt Field for a chance to play the Bobcats at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
me811508@ohiou.edu
