Sports
Unlucky Play Leads Ohio Field Hockey to First Conference Loss of the Season
By: Brie Boothby
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The Bobcats were looking to increase their Mid-American Conference win streak going into their match against Longwood, but it was broken in their first conference loss of the season, 3-1, to the Lancers. Coming off of their Thursday win over Ball State, the team traveled to Farmville for the Sunday match.
Ohio registered the first shot of the match when Kendall Ballard fired off a penalty corner, but it was saved by Lancer goalkeeper Lauren Bernard.
Despite shots on goal by both teams, the game remained scoreless for the first 21 minutes until Longwood’s Leonie Verstraete scored to take the Lancers to a 1-0 lead.
After that, the Bobcats stepped up the game and were desperately trying to put one in with two shots on goal at the end of the first half. Ohio’s Rachel Kho and Maria Russell both had shots, but neither helped the Bobcat’s tie up the game. Longwood had a last minute opportunity to increase their lead with a penalty corner as time expired in the first half, but two saves by sophomore goalkeeper Alex Pennington in the last two minutes of the half kept the Lancer lead the same.
Edel Nyland tallied the second Lancer goal of the match 36 seconds into the half to give Longwood a 2-0 lead.
The Bobcat’s Maria Russell quickly responded with a goal for Ohio, cutting the Lancer lead to 2-1. Both teams had another shot on goal, but the score remained the same until Ellen Ross found the goal to take Longwood to a 3-1 lead.
Ohio played an unlucky game, with two shots saved off the line and one off the crossbar, but ultimately the Lancers secured the 3-1 win at the end of the match.
Ohio returns home Friday for their Senior Night against MAC rival Kent State.