Central Michigan University
VCU
Slow Start Dooms Chippewa Field Hockey
9/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
RICHMOND, Va. â€" The Central Michigan field hockey team could not overcome a slow start Friday as the Chippewas fell to Virginia Commonwealth, 3-1, in a non-league match.
The loss dropped CMU to 0-3. The Chippewas play at William & Mary in a non-leaguer at noon on Sunday. William & Mary is 2-1 after a 5-3 win over Ohio on Friday. VCU is 2-0.
VCU's Alexis Albright scored midway through the second half on Friday to break a 1-1 tie and Taleah Scott added an insurance goal with under nine minutes remaining.
"We started pretty slow in the first half," first-year CMU coach Molly Pelowski said. "We knew VCU was going to be aggressive and going to be first to the ball.
"The second half the girls came out and did a much better job of stepping to the ball first and connecting on passes, doing the simple things.
"We need to make to improve our decision making in general. We had some poor turnovers that added up and ended up costing us the game."
Freshman Kady Gurtis scored the Chippewas' goal, the first of her collegiate career, off a Kaysie Gregory assist, about 9 ½ minutes into the second half to tie the match 1-1.
CMU goalkeeper Sadie Lynn Reynolds made eight saves.
"Reynolds had a couple great saves to really keep us in the match," Pelowski said.
The Chippewas were out-shot, 20-6, and VCU had 10 penalty corners to CMU's four. CMU did not have a shot or a penalty corner in the first half. The shots were 8-6, VCU, and the penalty corners were 5-4, VCU, in the final 35 minutes.
"It was a much closer game than what the score lets on," Pelowski said. "We were able to do a fair bit of subbing, got of fresh legs in there and we controlled the match for a solid 20 minutes in the second half. But you've got to do it for more than 20.
"We certainly improved from last week. Our individual defense got a little bit better, and we were applying coaching points more frequently than we were last weekend. We've got to buckle down and do some things better."
