But the Flashes still lost 3-1.

Similarly, the Flashes outshot Missouri State yesterday 30-7 and outcornered them 12-2.

This time, they left Murphy-Mellis Field with a 9-1 victory.

Junior forward Debbie Bell scored six goals on the weekend as the Flashes took a split for the sixth weekend this season.

“If you look at the stats, both games were about the same,” Kent State coach Kathleen Wiler said. “But we didn’t finish as a team (against Ohio).”

Ohio (8-7, 4-1 Mid-American Conference) made its presence known in the fourth minute of the game Friday, scoring off a penalty corner.

Soon after, the Flashes (8-6, 3-2 MAC) stepped up their aggressiveness.

Senior forward Nicole Leach and Bell received green cards for dangerous play, and the entire bench earned one for excessive arguing with the officials.

On a breakaway with three minutes left, freshman midfielder Rebecca Lee was tackled by Ohio goalie Courtney Seiders. But the clock kept running.

Bell replied with a shoulder check to another Ohio defender. This time, the clock stopped so trainers could tend to the uninjured player.

“I guess I am a bit of an aggressive player,” Bell said with a smile.

With Kent State trailing 2-0 in the second half, Bell tried to gain control over the reigning MAC Champions with a goal during a penalty corner in the 58th minute.

“It was nice to get a goal,” the forward said. “But it was almost too little too late.”

Ohio responded with its third goal a minute later, solidifying their victory.

“It was a huge, disappointing loss,” Bell said. “But that created the fire within us (yesterday).”

Against Missouri State, the Flashes set the tone in the game with Bell’s goal in the fifth minute.

It was the first of three goals the Flashes would score off penalty corner rebounds. The others came from Leach and Lee in the 39th and 50th minutes.

The 9-1 victory over Missouri State (3-9, 0-4 MAC) was the largest for Kent State this season.

“It was good to see the ball go in the net so many times,” Wiler said.

Lee also scored in the 12th minute of the game, and freshman midfielder Melanie Kahn posted her second collegiate goal in the 67th minute.

But Bell dominated with five goals against the Bears, which was one shy of tying the school record for most goals by one player in a game.

“It doesn’t cross my mind, to be honest,” Bell said. “I know I’ve scored five in a game before (against Ball State in 2009), but I didn’t know what the record was.”

The reigning MAC Player of the Week sank her fifth goal after earning a penalty stroke in the 67th minute.

Bell said the victory felt great, but the team did not accomplish everything it wanted to.

“Every game, we have three goals we want to accomplish: positions, attacking and defending,” Bell explained. “We didn’t accomplish our positions goal.”

Regardless, Wiler remained positive about this weekend’s turnout.

“We can talk about turnovers and working on possession,” Wiler said. “But overall, we had a good team performance (yesterday) and a good weekend.”

E-mail sports reporter Rachel Jones at [email protected].