Sports
Field Hockey: Ohio clinches MAC regular season crown
< < Back toWith a win on Sunday over Ball State, the Ohio women’s field hockey team secured its title as the MAC regular season champions. Although it didn’t come easy, the Bobcats were able to slip away with a 2-1 overtime win over the Cardinals.
The last time the Bobcats played Ball State, Ohio won 9-1. This wasn’t the case Sunday afternoon in Muncie, Indiana as the Cardinals were looking for revenge.
Ohio’s Katherine Fenzel gave the Bobcats a 1-0 lead in the first half as she scored her first goal of the season. Ball State answered back with a goal from Laura Malinoski late in the first half as she put back a rebound from a missed shot attempt. Both teams were close in shots and penalty corners in the first half with a slight advantage going to the Cats, but the teams headed into the half with the score tied at 1-1.
The second half was completely dominated by Ohio, but only on defense. The Cats held Ball State to no shots on goal and no penalty corners in the entire second half. However, the Bobcats were unable to score a goal, even though they had a flurry of five shots in less than two minutes.
Seventy minutes weren’t enough today as the regulation came to a close with the teams tied at 1-1. In the 79th minute – nine minutes into overtime – Ohio’s Laura Mastro scored the game-winner for the ‘Cats to give them a 2-1 victory. On a two-on-one breakaway with Taylor Brown at her side, Mastro kept it for herself and scored. Mastro is second on the team with 14 assists on the season and got her second goal of the season in crunch time in Muncie.
With the MAC Regular Season title under their belt, the Bobcats now know they will be the top overall seed in the MAC Tournament when it starts November 3 at Pruitt Field in Athens.