Oct. 31, 2008
Box Score
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Sophomore Paige Herr's first-career goal with 11.6 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Ohio field hockey team a 1-0 victory over Missouri State (6-13, 1-8 MAC) Friday afternoon at Plaster Field in the 'Cats regular season conference finale. With the win, the Bobcats (8-11, 6-4 MAC) assured themselves of at least a tie for third place in the Mid-American Conference. Ohio has now finished above .500 in the MAC all four years of head coach Neil Macmillan's tenure.
"It was an important win for us so we have some confidence going into next week's MAC Tournament," Macmillan said. "Missouri State is a tough place to play and we did a good job of executing our game plan as was we wanted. We put in a few slightly different things and it worked really well against them. I'm very happy with the team's performance today."
The Bobcats have now defeated the Bears in Springfield all four years under Macmillan, all coming by a 1-0 score, with the matches in 2007 and 2005 going into double overtime. The 'Cats improved their all-time mark against Missouri State to 15-8 and are 8-0 against the Bears since they joined the MAC in 2005.
Neither squad could find the back of the net in the opening half, despite Ohio holding a 6-3 edge in shots and a 5-1 advantage in penalty corners.
Both teams had opportunities to score in the second stanza, but the Bobcats' defense denied the Bears, allowing Herr (Lancaster, Pa.) to score the game-winning goal. A scramble ensued in front of the net with time running out and when the ball popped out to the left side, Herr was in the right place to bury the ball in the cage on her only shot of the match.
Ohio out-shot Missouri State 17-6 for the game and earned eight penalty corners to the Bears' four. Senior Rachelle Coetzee (Bloemfontein, S.A.) led the Bobcats with six shots, four of which were on goal, while junior Marcy Dull (Ephrata, Pa.) took three shots. Overall, eight different `Cats took a shot in the game. Junior Melissa Lantz paced Missouri State with four shots.
"We had multiple people getting into the attacking `D' and getting shots on target, which was exciting for us," Macmillan said. "Our defensive pressure was as we practiced and we did a good job with that. We could have taken things into our own hands earlier, but we dug it out in the last minute."
Senior goalie Jessie Martin (Louisville, Ky.) made three stops for Ohio, while senior Jessica Schuster made eight saves in goal for the Bears. Martin earned her second shutout of the season and the tenth of her career, while improving her record to 8-11 on the year.
With the win, the Bobcats improved to 5-7 in one-goal games on the season.
"It has been something we've needed to correct and we got it," Macmillan said of finishing off close games. "It's the right time in the season to make those changes. If we make those changes going into the MAC Tournament next weekend and Sunday's game (versus Richmond), we can have a nice finish to the season."
Ohio rounds out their regular season slate Sunday with a 1 p.m. ET match against the Richmond Spiders of the Atlantic 10 conference. The game will be played in St. Louis, Mo. on a neutral field at John Burroughs High School.
