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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio field hockey team (6-10) returned to action Sunday afternoon (Oct. 27), defeating Davidson (7-7), 2-1, at Pruitt Field.
Overall, Ohio outshot Davidson, 13-9, with seven shots on goal to the Wildcats' four. Davidson also took eight penalty corners to Ohio's six.
"I think that's super important for our confidence after losing some unlucky games. Winning this game is important for us, and we are all super happy that we won today," junior Anouk Plaehn (Hanover, Germany) said.
Individually, Plaehn scored one goal on two shots, while freshman Addy Basile (Lewes, Del.) added one goal on one shot. Junior Sasha Dikotla (Johannesburg, South Africa) added three shots, with two on goal, while graduate student Meela Kopp (Louisville, Ky.) and freshman Marie De Grande (Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium) both had assists for the Bobcats.
In goal, graduate student Macy Lotze (Louisville, Ky.) played all 60 minutes, allowing one goal and making one save.
The Bobcats opened the first quarter in the Davidson offensive zone, with Ohio drawing an early penalty corner that resulted in a blocked shot by Kopp. After some back and forth, Davidson earned their own penalty corner and an attempt of their own that was saved by Lotze, keeping the match tied at 0-0. As the quarter wound down, a missed penalty corner attempt from Ohio resulted in a Davidson shot that went wide, sending the game to the second still tied at 0-0.
Ohio opened the second quarter up on fire in the offensive zone, with Dikotla recording an attempt just three minutes in. The two teams continued to trade possession over the remaining minutes of the second quarter. Then with 30 seconds to go until halftime, Ohio drew a penalty corner and capitalized on it perfectly, with Basile scoring with assists from De Grande and Kopp, giving Ohio a 1-0 lead going into the half.
At the half, Ohio outshot Davidson, 6-2, with four shots on goal to the Wildcats' two. Ohio also drew three penalty corners to Davidson's one.
"if you look on my board, I think I wrote shots maybe 40 to 50 times on our game plan," head coach Ali Johnstone said. "We did really well with that at Ball State. Actually, I think we out shot Ball State, and we just said, we've just got to keep going with it and just keep shooting."
Davidson knotted the game at 1-1 early in the third quarter, scoring in the 34th minute off a penalty corner. After the Davidson goal, the Ohio defense spent the rest of the quarter holding off the Davidson offense, defending three penalty corners, but keeping the Wildcats off the board, sending the game to the fourth quarter tied at 1-1.
The fourth quarter started off as the third ended, with two more Davidson corners that did not result in a goal. Moments later, Ohio capitalized on their own corner in the 50th minute when Plaehn scored on her own rebound, giving Ohio 2-1 lead.
With five minutes to go in the match, Davidson pulled their keeper. After Ohio just missed an open net goal, Davidson drew a corner with 30 seconds remaining, but the Ohio defense was able to keep them out of the goal, securing the Ohio 2-1 victory.
Up next, the Bobcats conclude the 2024 regular season on Friday, Nov. 1 when they host Central Michigan for Senior Day. First touch is set for 2 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
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