Kent State women’s field hockey (10-6) beat Appalachian State University (9-6) Friday by a score of 3-0 on the road to finish 5-3 on the road in the regular season and clinch the MAC regular season championship. 

Two of the Flashes’ three goals came in the second period both off of penalty corners and were scored by junior forward Hailie Balachick and freshman back Maria Cambra Soler.

“I have to tip my cap to freshman Maria Cambra [Soler],”  coach Kyle Desandes-Moyer said. “She just executed when we called the corner and she just had really great execution.”

Kent’s third goal was scored in the third period by junior back/midfielder Clara Rodriguez Seto.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team and we are going to be the number one seed in the MAC tournament, so this was a pretty big win for us,” Desandes-Moyer said.

The Flashes took an impressive 17 total shots and converted on two of six penalty corner opportunities.

“This was probably our best game of the season,” Desandes-Moyer said. “We had fantastic ball movement, pace and we played at a high level.”

Defensively, Kent held Appalachian State to just two shots in the first half and eight shots overall. 

“I think we just really trust each other and had each others backs,” Desandes-Moyer said. “Our communication level was really high. We played Kent State field hockey and we played really good defense from our forwards all the way to our backline.”

Flashes junior goalie Azure Fernsler recorded six saves on the afternoon.

“Going into Ohio State we are going to have to continue to play really strong defense and make sure we take care of some of their key players and execute offensively,” Desandes-Moyer said.

Kent will look to continue its winning ways at home Sunday at 1 p.m. against Ohio State University (6-8).

Contact Kathryn Rajnicek at [email protected].