Central Michigan University Athletics
Field Hockey Falls at Miami, 4-2
10/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
OXFORD, Ohio - Four unanswered goals doomed the Central Michigan University field hockey team this afternoon as it fell to Mid-American Conference rival Miami, 4-2, at the Miami Turf Field. CMU saw its three-match MAC winning streak snapped as it lost to the RedHawks for the second time this season.
The Chippewas (5-10, 4-3 MAC) got on the board first in the 20th minute when Samantha Sandham scored unassisted, her fifth goal of the season. The junior midfielder has now scored in four straight matches, and she raised her career point total to 70, moving her into eighth place on the career scoring list.
Miami (7-10, 5-4 MAC) responded to CMU's tally with two of its own to take a 2-1 lead into halftime. Elizabeth Gilroy scored in the 28th minute to square the match before Alyssa Nye scored her first of the match to give the RedHawks a 2-1 lead at the break.
The RedHawks then scored twice more in the first 15 minutes of the second half to put the match away. Nye scored again on a feed from Meghan McMurtry in the 43rd minute, and then she completed the hat trick with her third of the match in the 51st minute for a 4-1 Miami advantage.
"The RedHawks are a very aggressive team, and they hve a lot of confidence in their offensive ability," CMU head coach Cristy Freese said. "They put a lot of players in the circle which gives them multiple options offensively, and we haven't defended well against them this year."
CMU did get one goal back in the 61st minute when Moyra Betuzzi netted her team-leading sixth goal of the season on a feed from Lizl Gericke to get within 4-2, but could get no closer.
Miami held a slight edge in shots, 12-8, and penalty corners, 7-5, over CMU. Miami goalkeeper Kelsey Dean made three saves to earn the victory, while CMU's starting goalkeeper Louise Gericke allowed all four RedHawk goals and made two saves and suffered the loss. Gericke was replaced in goal in the 54th minute by Kahla Schwall, who finished the match for CMU and did not record a save. It was Schwall's first appearance for the Chippewas since Sept. 9 at Colgate.
"We're a young team, and we really try to take every match and learn from it," Freese said. "We need to come out tomorrow and play better than we did today."
CMU wraps up its road schedule with a match at Ball State tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 21, at 2 p.m at the BSU Turf Field in Muncie, Ind.
