Following a 2-0 loss to nationally ranked Louisville, Ohio will look to advance in postseason rankings against Central Michigan.
Tags: Neil Macmillan, Field Hockey, Adele Sammons
If Ohio’s season was a boxing match, the Bobcats would be in the 12th round punching fearlessly at their opponent with two black eyes and multiple bruises.
After grinding out a win against Ball State last weekend, Ohio lost 2-0 to •No. 10 Louisville on Tuesday, but it knows there’s still plenty of life left in its season.
Traveling to Mount Pleasant, Michigan this weekend, Ohio (3-9, 2-2 MAC) has a chance to solidify a Mid-American Conference Tournament berth with a win against Central Michigan. Central Michigan (6-9, 4-0 MAC) is first in the MAC, followed by Kent State, Miami and Ohio.
The Bobcats held the nationally ranked Cardinals scoreless in the first half, after the Bobcats gave up three goals in the first half against Ball State. Louisville eventually scored twice in the second half to secure its •12th win, and Ohio walked away from the matchup with a slight moral victory.
Coach Neil Macmillan, however, was modest about the loss and what the Bobcats need to implement in their matchup with the Chippewas.
“We went into halftime feeling all right about it, but we go in trying to win these games,” Macmillan said. “Yeah we shut them out, but we didn’t create enough opportunities for us. We put a few opportunities together in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.”
Ohio will seek to continue its steady offensive production as of late against Central Michigan. In its 5-3 win over Ball State last Sunday, Ohio scored a season-high number of goals, as redshirt senior Lauryl Desch and junior Adele Sammons recorded all the Bobcats’ scores.
Redshirt sophomore •Nicky Vase and senior •Caelyn Hartley each tallied multiple assists in the win and the Bobcats snapped a five game-losing streak that dated back to Sept. 14.
Sammons said the Bobcats were satisfied with their corners against Ball State and the amount of scoring that ensued.
“We’ve been working on our corners, we identified some that we wanted to put in, and we just ran those over and over again and they were successful,” Macmillan said. “I don’t think you can get much better than what we did.”
“Little disappointing on the other side, (Ball State) had 10 and scored three. That’s very good production for them as well and we need to do better defensively, we gave up too much.”
The Chippewas are in the midst of a two-game winning streak and will look to remain undefeated in MAC play. With just three games left in the regular season, Central Michigan has to face Ohio and Kent State in hope of finishing first in the MAC.
"We competed against (Louisville) the entire game and only gave up two goals and we’re just going to take that confidence and aggression and tear through the MAC,” Hartley said.
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