Box Score

Moving on

The Kent State field hockey team (9-10, 5-1 MAC) began the weekend Mid-American Conference Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Miami University (7-12, 4-2 MAC) on Friday at home.

The Flashes immediately attacked from the start of the match when sophomore Madison Thompson scored her sixth goal of the season just two and a half minutes into the contest.

At the 15:37 mark, freshman Ines Delpech added to Kent State’s 1-0 lead, striking her fifth goal of the season and making it, 2-0.

“We came out firing, (and) we are so excited to play here and to just be in the MAC Tournament is such an exciting time of year,” Thompson said. “We had so much energy to bring today and we really showed it and never let up, we need to build off of that for tomorrow.”

Miami’s Brianna Stahl notched the Red Hawks’ only goal of the game at the 23:11 mark, cutting the Flashes’ lead in half before the end of the first period.

Kent State countered Miami’s comeback attempt when Thompson blasted second goal of the game and seventh goal of the season off her own deflection at the 45:08 mark in the second half.

“Putting 70 minutes together all year hasn’t been our strong, suit and we definitely did that today,” Thompson said.

Kent State coach Kathleen Wiler said she was proud of her team’s performance Friday.

 “I’m really pleased with the effort we came out at the start of the game,” Wiler said. “We had just a ton of energy and we wanted to come out and attack and we did just that.”

Hard work paid off

Along with the exciting news of winning Friday’s match, Kent State Flashes also received some top honors for the 2014 season. Senior Hannah Faulkner was named the MAC Player of the Year and Delpech was named MAC Freshman of the Year, as voted by all seven conference coaches, Senior Julia Hofmann was named to the All-MAC First Team along with Faulkner, and Thompson, junior Alayna Harris and Delpech all earned Second Team honors.

Sights on a championship

The Ohio University Bobcats come to town to face Kent State Saturday at Murphy-Mellis Field for the MAC Championship.

Wiler said she hopes Friday’s momentum will carry over to Saturday’s game and eventually lead to the Flashes’ second straight MAC Championship.

“Any time you get on the board early it’s a plus,” Wiler said of Friday’s game. “It just really happens with how we stay persistent and relentless on our attack, and we look forward to playing again tomorrow.”

Saturday’s game is set to start at 2 p.m.

Contact Alex Klukaszewski at [email protected].