Freshman midfielder Annika Gouws drives upfield past Ohio sophomore midfielder Rachel Coetzee in the Flashes 2-1 victory yesterday afternoon. BRIAN MARKS | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Jason Hall

A day after being the first team in the Mid-American Conference to lose to Central Michigan, the Kent State field hockey team defeated MAC leader Ohio 2-1 yesterday.

“It would have been nice to get two wins this weekend but, I am really happy to beat Ohio,” coach Kathleen Schanne said. “It’s a real positive to give Ohio its first MAC loss. We are just playing beautiful hockey right now.”

Senior midfielder Liz Fettrow said she only needed one word to describe Kent State’s win over Ohio, “huge.”

Kent State (5-9, 2-3 MAC) started the game with three shots in the first two minutes of play. Fettrow said that the team’s start was very important to the outcome of the game.

“I thought we came out extremely strong,” Fettrow said. “In the first five minutes we were demanding of ourselves. We came out pressured and put them on their heels. We took it to them. That was important to get our momentum going.”

Despite forcing nine penalty corners and 13 shots, Ohio (7-6, 4-1 MAC) failed to score in the first half. Schanne said she was happy with Kent State’s defense, but was not happy with giving up so many corners.

Fettrow gave Kent State a 1-0 lead 12:27 minutes into the first half when she scored her second goal of the year after she rebounded her own shot.

“We’ve practiced midfielders stepping up and supporting,” Fettrow said. “I was in the right place at the right time. I just put the ball in the cage. It’s a process of being persistent.”

Kent State took the 1-0 lead to half. During the break, Schanne said the team did not want to get complacent.

“We talked about getting back on defense and recovering,” Schanne said. “That’s a big reason why we gave up so many corners in the first half. We were in better position and more organized in the second half.”

Two minutes into the second half, Ohio’s Torrie Albini tied the game at 1-1, but the game would only stay tied for the 11 minutes. Sophomore forward Natalie Barrett scored the game winning goal after Ohio failed to clear Kent State’s first corner of the half.

“Liz Fettrow passed it in and it came and the ball came out,” Schanne said. “There was a scramble and Natalie Barrett just finished it off.”

After Barrett’s goal, Ohio only had two shots for the rest of the game. Schanne said that her team’s aggressive style helped keep Ohio from coming back.

“We wanted to attack and shoot the ball,” Schanne said. “We put pressure on them and we were attacking from the start.”

A week after winning their first road game of the season, the Flashes would again find themselves having trouble away from home when they traveled to play at Central Michigan (5-5, 1-3 MAC) Saturday.

“We had countless opportunities,” Schanne said. “We just didn’t finish. We didn’t get the ball to the net and we didn’t shoot the ball half as much as we did against Ohio.”

Senior forward Kate Perry scored Kent State’s first and only goal of the game 5:36 minutes into the first half. Barrett got her second assist of the year off of Perry’s goal.

Perry’s MAC-leading eighth goal of the year broke her previous personal best of seven goals in a season.

The Flashes would only manage to get two more shots on goal in the first half.

However, junior goalie Kara Copeland kept Central Michigan scoreless in the first half by stopping 12 shots.

But the Chippewas ended Copeland’s shutout attempt early in the second half. Samantha Sandham scored an unassisted goal in the 47th minute of play to tie the game at 1-1.

Kent State’s offensive problems carried over into the second half. Kent State failed to get into any sort of rhythm and only attempted one penalty corner and just three shots on goal.

After Central Michigan’s goal, both teams were held scoreless for the final 23 minutes of regulation. This led to Kent State’s second overtime game of the year and Central Michigan’s fourth.

Central Michigan would waste no time securing its first MAC win of the year. Just 4:16 minutes into overtime, Sandham tipped in her second goal of the game past Copeland to give Central Michigan the 2-1 victory.

Kent State will play at Miami (6-7, 3-1 MAC) 3 p.m. Friday. Kent State lost to Miami 4-7 when the two met at Murphy Mellis field earlier this season.

Contact field hockey reporter Tyler McIntosh at [email protected].