Flashes stops Ohio State 3-0, extends winning streak to three games

GAVIN JACKSON | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Jason Hall

Kent State’s field hockey team made it three in a row yesterday, defeating Ohio State 3-0 at Murphy Mellis Field.

Coach Kathleen Schanne said she felt good after the team defeated the Buckeyes for the first time since 2002.

“It is special,” she said. “It is important for us as a university and a conference to beat a Big Ten team.”

Freshman forward Rachel Miller’s backhanded goal midway through the first half got the Golden Flashes on the board first.

“It was huge,” Schanne said. “To get that emotional edge right off the bat was really, really big.”

The goal was just the latest in a long line of accomplishments for Miller. In only five career games at Kent State, she already has three goals and two assists. She was also named Mid-American Conference Player of the Week yesterday.

“It has been a team effort,” Miller said. “Playing with all these experienced players has been good, and I’ve learned a lot of great tips from them. It’s great to play with them out there.”

The Golden Flashes put the second goal on the board early in the second half, which was senior captain Charlotte Muller’s second goal of the season. Junior forward Natalie Barrett then dove in front of the goal and knocked in the Golden Flashes third goal of the game off the top of her stick.

“I knew the pass was too far and I couldn’t reach it, so I had to slow down and tip it into the net,” Barrett said.

Kent State then was able to preserve the shutout with great defense in front of the net and diving saves by senior goalkeeper Kara Copeland. She has given up only one goal in the team’s last three games.

“I’m so impressed with (Kara) today,” Schanne said. “I don’t think any ball could have scored on her today. She did a great job keeping the ball out of the net.”

Schanne said this is where she expected her team to be one-fifth of the way through the season. She is impressed by her team’s hard work.

“We’re playing hard right now, something we may have been missing last year,” Schanne said. “I see hustle, hustle, hustle on every ball, we were not going to lose that one. I hope we can build from here.”

The team now has 10 days off to prepare for next weekend’s games against Northwestern and American.

“We played three games in four days, so we are going to rest our legs, watch a lot of film and fine tune some stuff,” Schanne said.

Contact sports reporter Jeff Russ at [email protected].