Bell’s six goals not enough for Flashes field hockey

Senior midfielder Carla Johl stick tackles a California player. Photo by Matt Hafley.

Nick Shook
October 23, 2011

The Game

Goals scored: 8

Goals allowed: 10

Debbie Bell: six goals scored

Assists: 6

Penalty Corners: 20

Saves: 12

Shots: 27

Shots on Goal: 20

A weekend sweep was the goal of the Kent State field hockey team. Instead, the Flashes returned to Kent with two losses by the slimmest of margins.

Senior Debbie Bell scored six goals in two games, but her effort wasn’t enough to bring home a win for the Flashes. Kent State fell to Ball State 4-3 on Saturday and Miami (Ohio) 6-5 on Sunday.

The Flashes fell far behind early in the game by allowing Miami to score three goals within the first eight minutes of play. However, Kent State could not be kept down, as Bell scored two goals in nine minutes to quickly trim the RedHawks’ lead to one. Miami’s Olivia Miller answered Bell with a goal of her own in the 27th minute, extending Miami’s lead to 4-2, but Bell scored again five minutes later to again bring the Flashes within one.

“I think we took really good advantage of the corner situation this week,” Bell said. “We’re a team that gets a lot of penalty corners. Five of my goals came off of corners this weekend.”

Bell scored her fourth and final goal of the afternoon in the 50th minute to tie the game at four, and it seemed as though Kent State was poised to complete the comeback. Miami’s Kylie Landeros scored eight minutes later to stifle the Flashes’ momentum and regain the lead. The back-and-forth play continued when Kent State’s Julia Hofmann scored in the 62nd minute to tie the game at five.

The two teams appeared to be headed to overtime until Miami’s Amanda Seeley scored the game-winning goal with less than two minutes remaining.

“We knew that it was completely possible for us to come back and score in the last 1:45,” Bell said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to come back.”

The loss was Kent State’s second of the weekend, as the Flashes suffered a difficult 4-3 overtime loss to Ball State on Saturday. Kent State’s record fell to 5-12 overall and 3-5 in the Mid-American Conference. The Flashes will finish the regular season with one more home stand, beginning on Friday when they host the MAC regular season champion Ohio Bobcats. Kent State will look to improve before beginning tournament play on Nov. 3.

“I think we can come into the tournament as an underdog and show people that there is more to come from Kent State field hockey,” Bell said.