Oct. 29, 2006
Box Score
ATHENS, Ohio - On Senior Day, the Ohio field hockey team (11-8, 8-2 MAC) lost its regular season finale as the Bobcats were defeated by the Michigan State Spartans (7-11, 1-5 Big Ten) 2-1 on Sunday, Oct. 29 at Peggy Pruitt Field. The Bobcats conclude the regular season with an 11-8 overall record (8-2 MAC).
Michigan State would strike first and take an early lead, with the first goal coming at 3:33. Becky Bolen got the ball in play on an MSU penalty corner, passing to Kristin Dunn who set up the shot for Geraldine Raynor. With a 1-0 lead, the Spartans struck again at 12:01, with senior Megan Nimke taking a solid shot from the top corner of the circle, scoring the goal off a pass from Anne-Sophie van Rijswijk. The Bobcats got on the board with less than five minutes in the half as junior Torre Albini (Escondido, Calif.) scored an unassisted goal.
Ohio won the first half penalty corner battle 4-3 and the Spartan and Bobcats both were able to get off four shots apiece.
The second half would prove to be a defensive battle that saw each only one shot by each team, and no penalty corners. The Bobcats held a 4-3 advantage on penalty corners for the game, although the teams were even with five shots apiece. Bobcat goalkeeper Jessie Martin (Louisville, Ky.) managed one save on two goals allowed while Spartan goalkeeper Stephanie Yuhasz tallied three saves on one goal allowed.
"Michigan State is a good team and we knew that coming into today's game, but we just didn't play how we should against a team of their caliber," said Head Coach Neil Macmillan. "We want to play well going into the MAC Tournament, but we gave up two goals in the first 12 minutes of today's game. We fought back well in the second half and controlled a lot of the play, unfortunately we fell a little short."
The Bobcats will now prepare for the Mid-American Conference Tournament. Ohio goes into the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will play their first game on Friday, Nov. 3 at 12 p.m. against the winner of the No. 4 vs. No. 5. Ohio University will host the MAC Field Hockey Championships at Peggy Pruitt Field from Nov. 2-4.
