Momentum is defined as the “strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events.” In the case of the Kent State field hockey team, it seems as though the Flashes are following the definition and gaining steam as they head into their road match-up at Central Michigan Saturday.

Kent State began their weekend home stand with a difficult 2-1 loss to Miami, but rebounded by defeating Ball State 4-1 Sunday. The victory over the Cardinals gave the Flashes a confidence boost that they hope will carry over into the weekend’s game versus the Chippewas.

“It was good to rebound off of our loss to Miami,” senior Amy Wimsatt said. “It was nice to come out with a win and good momentum going into next week.”

Central Michigan boasts the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week in sophomore Bailey McKeon, but Kent State coach Kathleen Wiler would rather focus on improving her team’s weaknesses instead of preparing to defend McKeon.

“We’re worried about Kent State,” Wiler said.

“We haven’t really focused on anyone in particular; we really haven’t even been focusing on Central Michigan as a team,” Wimsatt said. “We’ve really been focusing on ourselves and what we can do to improve our game generally, and hope to apply that to every team we play from here on out.”

The Flashes have found recent success offensively — they scored six goals in their last two games. However, the team is not satisfied with its recent success, and continued to work on improving during the week.

“We’ve been working on our offensive structure, changing the point of attack, getting in the right positions to have the best chances to score inside the 25 and getting our productivity up,” Wimsatt said. “Hopefully it can translate into the weekend.”

Starting fast has been an issue for Kent State, but they seemed to alleviate that during their win over Ball State, in which the Flashes scored two goals in the first six minutes of play. Kent State wants to take the next step by playing well for an entire game.

“This week, we want to take the next step further and play a full 70 minutes of hockey,” senior Carla Johl said. “The Chippewas are always an unpredictable team for us, and they don’t give up, so we can’t afford to not play for 70 minutes.”

The Flashes continue their MAC schedule Saturday against the Chippewas. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

Contact Nick Shook at [email protected] and @Shookie_Cookie.