Field hockey falls 2-1 to Ohio at home

Ostensibly, Ohio looked like the far superior team in the first half as it rebounded from a 4-2 loss to California on Friday. The Bobcats came ready to play Saturday, defeating the Hoosiers 2-1 at home.

IU coach Amy Robertson said she knew Ohio would begin the game with intensity.
“She told us not to underestimate them and that we should come out and play as hard as we would with any other team,” sophomore forward Shareyna Chang said.

The Hoosiers did not match Ohio’s intensity, Robertson said.

“We had extremely poor effort in our first half,” she said. “We didn’t play as a team. We recognized it was going to be a no-win situation if we kept playing the way we did in the first half. It wasn’t the best IU field hockey game today.”

Robertson praised the Bobcats’ performance.

“Ohio played a very smart, strategic game,” she said. “They took the opportunities when they created them.”

The Bobcats pounced on IU early, tallying a goal just under two minutes into the game off a penalty corner.

“It’s hard when the other team scores first. But we always try to play hard the next five minutes,” freshman back Danielle McNally said. “You could tell we were down on ourselves a little bit. We try to fight through everything. It’s mostly a mental game.”

IU exited the first period trailing 1-0.

McNally elaborated how Robertson spent halftime.

“She made us realize that we weren’t playing IU field hockey, and we dug deep down inside of us and tried to come out and win it,” she said. “We played the hardest we could, and evidently we didn’t play enough in the first half.”

Chang tallied the sole Hoosier goal, drawing the team even with Ohio 3:44 into the second half. Off a quick restart, Chang dribbled into the right side of the circle and fired a shot that deflected off the foot of a Bobcat player.

“I think we started playing a little bit more like ourselves in the second half,” Robertson said. “We made some adjustments, pointed out some things.”

Those adjustments paid immense dividends as IU attempted 14 shots in the second half and tallied nine penalty corners. Those numbers contrasted sharply to the Hoosiers’ offensive attack in the first half, where IU attempted two shots and amassed two penalty corners.

“We did create a lot more opportunities,” Robertson said. “We just unfortunately didn’t find the back of the net,”

IU did not coerce Ohio to alter their style. Subsequently, IU fell.

“We weren’t really playing IU hockey. We all knew that,” Chang said. “We had to pick it up and to do what we know — little passes, to find each other and to connect. It just wasn’t enough.”