The Ohio State field hockey team kept its five-game home winning streak alive against Ball State on Sunday, but it wasn't easy. It took two overtimes for the Buckeyes to beat the Cardinals 2-1 on the North Turf Field. The game winner was scored by sophomore defender/midfielder Saskia Muller with 5:23 left in the second overtime.
"I think it was about time we scored. I think it was kind of lucky," Muller said. "It went right between the legs of the goalkeeper. But a goal's a goal, so we'll take it."
Ohio State's lone goal in regulation was scored with seven seconds remaining in the first half by senior forward Deen Rebstock.
"The team built it up good from the back, and then I got a good pass from Cammie Trainer," Rebstock said.
OSU coach Anne Wilkinson was pleased with the win, her 100th victory as coach.
"We did a great job in the beginning setting ourselves up defensively and being able to to set ourselves up on offense," Wilkinson said. "We play with an error-forcing system, and we were able to force Ball State to make a lot of errors early on."
Goalkeeper Lindsay Williams stopped eight shots.
Muller credits her team's backfield performance as a big part of the win.
"We're a lot better building the game from the backfield," she said. "I think that has improved a lot so far this season."
Even with the win, the Buckeyes still see many things they need to improve on before their next game.
"In the past, scoring off of the penalty corner shots has been a goto thing, but this year we are really struggling with that," Wilkinson said. "But what we need to improve the most on is being able to play for 70 minutes consistantly. We show so many great things, but we don't show them enough."Muller agreed that there is room for improvement.
"Today we had trouble with the forward lines," she said. "We need to fight harder and we need to play more as a team, especially upfront and try to finish."
Teamwork is something that Rebstock believes the team needs to focus on.
"We need to work a lot harder for the next game," said Rebstock. "We won today, but we didn't really play that well together as a team."
The Buckeyes play their next game on Saturday at home against Penn State, their first Big Ten game of the season.
"We're excited for Penn State; it's probably one of our biggest games of the season," Muller said. "I think it's a team we can beat if we come together."
Wilkinson said she doesn't have to work very hard to motivate her team for a Big Ten game.
"We're excited about it," she said. "Now it's just a matter of continuing the tempo from today into next week."
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