Central Michigan University Athletics
2002 Field Hockey MAC Champions to Be Honored
10/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
MOUNT PLEASANT - Central Michigan field hockey head coach Cristy Freese had a feeling the stars were going to align for her team heading into the 2002 season.
“Finally, we have both depth and experience,” she said in the 2002 season preview from the preseason media guide. “We have five seniors who have played since they were freshmen and should make a big impact this season.”
She was spot on, as a strong corps of veterans and a complement of skilled underclassmen led the Chippewas to their first regular season MAC Championship since 1990 with a record of 14-7, 7-3 MAC, the best of Freese’s 27-year tenure at CMU.
Freese, who earned her third-career MAC Coach of the Year award, and her 21 players entered the 2002 season with high expectations and an even higher ceiling of potential, and they now return to Mount Pleasant 10 years later to be honored as one of the best field hockey teams in school history.
Members of the 2002 team have returned to Mount Pleasant to be recognized at the homecoming football game and Sunday’s field hockey match as part of field hockey alumnae weekend.
“The most rewarding thing and the reason why I’m still in coaching is that sometimes you don’t get to see the result of what you’re doing until ten years down the road when they come back and they say, 'This was a great time in my life and why I am the person I am today,’” Freese said.
The team earned a number of accolades. Janel Spero was named the first MAC Player of the Year, and along with sister Jeannete and Kristy Reed, was named first-team All-MAC. Second-team honoree Jocelyn Gates and Academic All-MAC honorees Reed, Michelle Fogle and Meg Lewis also garnered awards for their talents.
The root of the team’s success, Freese believes, lies not only within the talent the players possessed - she considers the 2002 team the most talented in program history - but also the passion and intensity with which they played the games with each other as a team.
“In hindsight, the intensity they all brought to the table in their own ways really made us strong as a team,” she said. “They realized at the end of day that even though they were talented individually, they couldn’t get it done by themselves and needed a strong team effort to succeed.”
The cornerstone of the team and their intense team mentality was the group of seniors - Janel and Jeanette Spero, Maria Neiswnder, Gates and Lewis - which was anchored by four-time All-MAC and 2002 MAC Co-Player of the Year goalkeeper Janel Spero.
“Every year she learned and brought her game to a new level,” Freese said. “What I respected most about her during her senior year is that she was still trying to learn and trying to get better.”
By the end of the season, Janel combined with backs Jeanette and Neiswender to form a potent defensive backfield that made scoring on the Chippewas a tough task. The Maroon and Gold surrendered just 1.48 goals per match on average with five shutouts.
Gates and Lewis scored seven goals apiece in the offensive side of the field, and sophomore forward Kristy Reed led the team with 13 goals to earn first-team All-MAC honors. Throughout the season the Chippewas averaged just over two goals per game.
The race for the conference went right down to the wire, as the Chippewas needed to win at least one of its final two regular season matches at Ohio and Kent State to clinch the title in a tie with Louisville and both to win the title outright.
The Chippewas won 4-2 over Ohio to start the weekend and, knowing that Louisville had lost earlier in the day, just needed a win at Kent State to clinch the title outright with an 8-2-conference record. Central Michigan fought hard, but lost a close match to the Golden Flashes, 2-1 in overtime for a share of the MAC title.
The Chippewas and Golden Flashes met up again just a week later in the MAC tournament, and again the match went down to the wire, but Kent State was able to prevail, this time 3-2 in double overtime, to claim the title and end the Chippewas’ hopes of a Tournament title.
The 2002 team returns to Mount Pleasant this weekend to find the 2012 Chippewas in a similar end-of-season situation - a team led by a group of five seniors tied for first in the MAC with just two conference matches remaining.
And you can be sure they’re hoping the similarities keep on coming all the way to a MAC Championship and beyond.