Sept. 14, 2013

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. â€" The Ohio University field hockey team (2-3) took advantage of its best defensive effort of the season to earn a 1-0 victory over the University of California (3-3) Saturday afternoon in Evanston, Ill.

“I’m really excited about how we played today,” head coach Neil Macmillan said. “We did a great job of keeping the energy up throughout and we played a great passing game. We played the style of hockey that we love to play and moved the ball around well. Our forwards did a good job of running with space and working off each other to create the opportunities that we had up front.”

Junior goalkeeper Brittany Walker (Elizabethtown, Pa.) posted her first shutout of the season and the fourth of her career to pace Ohio on the defensive end. Walker made three saves in a full 70 minutes of action.

“What stands out most is our defensive effort,” Macmillan said. “We were first to the ball a lot on the defensive end and were able to clear their passes and get to the ball before their rebounders did.”

“I thought Brittany was excellent in goal today. What doesn’t show up on the scoresheet is that she had a lot of one on ones where she came out and smothered the ball to stop any Cal attacks from happening.”

Senior Jessica Jue (Vancouver, British Columbia) took care of things on the offensive side of the field, posting her first goal of the season to provide the ‘Cats with the game winner. The ‘Cats out-shot the Golden Bears 8-4 and split the penalty corner battle (4-4).

Freshman Franziska Schmiedel (Mulheim, Germany) led the Green & White with three shots (all on goal), while redshirt junior Lauryl Desch (Charlottesville, Va.) and senior Luli Gomez Teruel (Salta, Argentina) posted two shots each for Ohio.

Neither team could manufacture a shot until the 11th minute, when Gomez Teruel rifled a shot wide to start the action. A corner from Jue led to a Schmiedel shot that was saved at 14’ and the ‘Cats grabbed another corner opportunity at 20’. After a shot from Desch was blocked by Cal, Jue took the rebound and fired it past Golden Bears’ goalkeeper Courtney Hendrickson for the score.

After another corner taken by Jue at 29’, Cal earned its first scoring opportunity with two penalty corners in the 33rd minute. But Walker made a pair of crucial saves during the sequence and Ohio took its 1-0 lead into the break.

Penalty corners by Cal at 39’ and 44’ yielded no goals for the Golden Bears, as Walker made a save at 39:46 of Cal’s only shot during the scoring threat.

Ohio countered with a corner in the 45th minute, but Schmiedel’s shot was stopped by Hendrickson. After another shot off a Cal corner was saved by Walker at 51’, the Ohio defense ratcheted up and the Golden Bears could not muster another shot for the remainder of the contest.

The Bobcats wrap up their time in Evanston, Ill., with a matchup against No. 12 Northwestern Sunday at 1 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

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