Life on the road is hard for every field hockey team in the Mid-American Conference. The MAC is a combined 5-12 against out-of-conference opponents this season.

The Kent State field hockey team is no different. Coming into Saturday’s game with St. Louis, Kent State had lost all four of its road games this year.

“We had bad travel delays,” coach Kathleen Schanne said. “You can have everything planned out perfectly, but plans get canceled and you get out of your routine. You don’t get to places until certain times. We just don’t have all of the comforts of home around us.”

Kent State (4-8, 1-2 MAC) started its weekend road trip with a 2-1 loss to Missouri State (5-3, 1-0 MAC) State Friday.

But Kent State broke its road losing streak Saturday with a 6-1 win over St. Louis (4-5, 0-0 Atlantic 10).

The first of the Flashes’ three unanswered first-half goals against St. Louis came one minute into the game. Senior midfielder Liz Fettrow re-directed junior back Charlotte Muller’s shot off of a penalty corner.

Ten minutes later, sophomore midfielder Natalie Barrett took a Muller pass and scored her second goal of the year.

After assisting on the first two goals of the game, Muller got one of her own when she scored off a penalty corner.

The goal, which was Muller’s second of the weekend and fourth of the year, put Kent State up 3-0 at half time. Schanne said Muller’s play stood out.

“Charlotte Muller had a goal and two assists off of corners. If I had to single out one player it would be Charlotte,” Schanne said.

Freshman forward Laurie Wilkins took over the second half of play. Wilkins scored two unassisted goals in the second half to give Kent State a 5-1 lead. Senior forward Elizabeth Lahey added one more goal to give Kent State the 6-1 win.

Junior goalie Kara Copeland, who had six saves, got her second win of the season. Schanne did not indicate whether or not Copeland would remain the starter over senior Linz Markwart.

“We had some beautiful attacking play all over the field,” Schanne said. “Our forward line played really well today. The backs played well too. There was a lot of unselfish passing. It was an absolute team effort, today we played a full 70 minutes.”

Friday’s game against Missouri State was a defensive struggle.

Missouri State was only able to produce five shots and two penalty corners in the first 35 minutes.

However, in the 19th minute, Melissa Millin converted a penalty corner shot into the Bear’s lone goal of the half.

The Flashes tied the game up at 1-1 when, with just 37 seconds left in the half, Muller scored the Flashes only goal after a pass by senior forward Kate Perry. The assist was Perry’s fifth of the year.

“We had some really nice attacking play at the end of the first half to tie it up,” Schanne said.

The defensive-oriented game continued into the second half. Neither the team was able to record a goal in the first 20 minutes.

But an unassisted goal by Ashley Huck gave Missouri State a 2-1 lead with 20:58 minutes to go in the game. Despite having several chances, Kent State was not able to turn opportunities into goals.

The Flashes gave up nine penalty corners and 12 shots in the second half. Copeland had a season-high eight saves in the defeat.

Kent State will play at Central Michigan 1 p.m. Saturday.

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