Sept. 15, 2013

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. â€" The Ohio University field hockey team (2-4) put forth another superior defensive effort Sunday afternoon but came up just short, falling to No. 12 Northwestern, 1-0, at Lakeside Field in Evanston, Ill.

“I’m a little disappointed with the outcome today but I think we fought really hard throughout the game,” head coach Neil Macmillan said. “Northwestern did a nice job of playing an up tempo style. Every time we turned it over they ran at us hard and put us under pressure.”

Senior goalkeeper Brittany Walker (Elizabethtown, Pa.) was again the star for the Bobcats, allowing just one goal while making five saves against the No. 12 team in the nation. Coupled with her strong game against Cal, Walker has now posted a 0.64 goals against average and .889 save percentage over her past two contests. She has made eight saves while allowing just one goal.

“The defense was extremely resolute yet again today,” Macmillan said. “I thought we did a great job picking up their dangerous forwards. I was happy to see Brittany play another outstanding game in goal.”

On the offensive side of the field, freshman Franziska Schmiedel (Mulheim, Germany) led the ‘Cats with two shots, while junior Lauryl Desch (Charlottesville, Va.) posed Ohio’s lone shot on goal against the fifth-ranked defense in the country.

“At the other end we didn’t do a good enough job creating shots off the chances we had,” Macmillan said. “We had a lot of balls in the attacking area that we didn’t do enough with.”

The Wildcats held a 12-5 advantage in shots for the game and posted 10 penalty corners to Ohio’s six.

Northwestern earned a couple scoring chances early in the contest, including two shots in the 7th and 13th minutes that were saved by Walker.

Ohio received its first opportunity in the 16th minute but could not convert on a penalty corner by senior Jessica Jue (Vancouver, British Columbia).

After Walker saved another Wildcats shot at 27’, Ohio put together a strong two-minute sequence in the offensive zone. Jue began the action with a corner at 30:57, which was taken by sophomore Adele Sammons (Upminster, England) and was fired wide of the goal. After another corner from Jue, Desch rifled a shot at the Wildcat goal but Maddy Carpenter was there to make the save for Northwestern at 31:55.

The two teams entered halftime knotted at zero.

Walker saved yet another Northwestern shot attempt at 36’, but the Wildcats finally broke through in the 40th minute when Nikki Parsley beat Walker with a reverse stick shot from inside the top of the circle.

Ohio earned another penalty corner at 45’ but a shot from senior Luli Gomez Teruel (Salta, Argentina) went wide. The ‘Cats put together another strong effort at 56’ with a corner from Jue, but Schmiedel’s ensuing shot also went wide.

Walker made her fifth save at 64’ and Ohio earned one more chance to post the equalizer, but a shot from Schmiedel was wide at 68’ and Northwestern hung on for the victory.

The ‘Cats return to action Saturday (Sept. 21) with a matchup against Indiana in Bloomington, Ind. The contest is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

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