The Kent State field hockey team hosted the Mid-American Conference finals Saturday at Murphy-Mellis Field, besting the Ohio University Bobcats, 2-0, and winning the MAC Conference title.

“It feels awesome — I waited basically four years for this, and we were just ready today,” said senior Julia Hoffmann after the team celebrated the traditional ringing of the Victory Bell. “It’s really exciting. For us, it didn’t really matter who we were going to play. We had to win anyways. We were just excited to come out and play in front of our home crowd and get the win.”

Saturday’s match began with a scoreless first half of play, with 35 minutes of back-and-forth possession battles between both sides.

It wasn’t until minute 53 when senior Hannah Faulkner scored her 19th goal of the season, assisted by sophomore Krysti Lober to give the Flashes a one-score game.

Kent State fans were left wondering whether one goal would be enough to win the conference until senior Julia Hoffman launched her 10th goal of the season into the net assisted by junior Alayna Harris and senior MAC Player of the Year Hannah Faulkner.

As the horn sounded to end the game, Kent State mobbed its goalie, sophomore Andrea Rinehart, as she was commended for her shut out. The team then gathered and rung the victory bell in celebration of a satisfying win and successful season.

“We’ve been working for the past three or four years, and finally it’s coming all together,” Faulkner said. “We had to see other teams come away with those T-shirts, and medals and trophies and just being in that position today means everything to us.” 

The Flashes ended their season with a 10-10-0 overall record and led the MAC (5-1) in conference play. 

Contact Alex Klukaszewski at [email protected].