The cliché that conference play is the beginning of a new season is one that is often overused by coaches.
For Ohio, it is more than a cliché, as the Mid-American Conference season will bring about a return to normalcy, though the Bobcats will hit the road again for a pair of games against Missouri State and St. Louis.
“Between the competition we’ve played and the situation with Pruitt, we’ve suffered through a lot of adversity during the beginning of our season,” coach Neil Macmillan said. “But now that we will be able to move back to Pruitt next week, the conference season will offer up a sort of new season for us.
The Bobcats (3-7) will open their conference schedule this afternoon against the Bears (2-9), a field hockey-only MAC team.
The Bears will enter the game having lost eight of their past nine games, while being shut out four times during the stretch. Missouri State’s most recent win came 10 days ago against St. Louis.
On Sunday, the Bobcats will make the short trip to play the Billikens (1-10). St. Louis’ lone win came against Ball State on Sept. 22, as St. Louis has been outscored this season 64-12.
Although this weekend’s competition does not match some of the teams the Bobcats have played, coach Macmillan is anticipating his team to employ some of the lessons they’ve learned during the first 10 games moving forward.
“We’ve had a lot of people step up early in the season and the freshman have been a big part of what we’ve done,” Macmillan said. “Unfortunately, our record isn’t quite where we would like it to be, and I feel that we’re better than (our record), but we have the next few weeks to fix it.”
The Bobcats will play just five games during MAC play, but three of those will be played at home on the newly renovated Pruitt Field.
Ohio will play their home opener next weekend against Central Michigan, but will first have to focus on its final weekend road trip of the season.
“Some of the things that teams in the past have picked up on in the first few weeks have been slower to develop this year because of the situation we were presented,” Macmillan said. “But the girls have developed a close bond with one another and are more together as a team, which is important because the result of conference games are more vital to the season.”
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