Torrie Albini put on one more memorable performance for the fans at Peggy Pruitt Field yesterday, scoring three goals and tallying two assists to lead No. 15 Ohio to a 6-0 victory over Missouri State on Senior Day. With that win and a 5-3 victory over Kent State Friday, the Bobcats clinched the regular-season Mid-American Conference title.

Along with four other seniors, Albini played her final regular-season game on Pruitt Field.

“Today was a special day for our seniors,” she said. “I wanted to put on a show for the fans. This is something that means so much. You know the end is going to come, but when it’s here, you just want to go out with a bang.”

After leading the team with 14 goals last season, Albini pushed her team-leading total for this year to 16. She currently sits in second place all-time with 45 scores in her career.

Albini said she is thankful for the time spent at Ohio.

“It’s been a blessing,” she said. “I get to come out every day and play with my friends, and more than anything, I’ve been healthy.”

Albini picked up two goals in the first half, including one in the fourth minute, to give the Bobcats the early jump. Solid execution of the team’s game plan led to the consistent offensive pressure, Albini said.

“We really fed off the energy we had in the first five minutes when we started dominating,” she said. “It was really exciting to see how the underclassmen and subs came in, and it pumped us up as starters.”

The Ohio offense dominated the contest against the Bears (1-17, 0-8 MAC), notching 30 shots to Missouri State’s six and accumulating 18 shots on goal.

The Bobcats (14-4, 8-1 MAC) felt more comfortable on their home turf and executed as well as they could have, Ohio coach Neil Macmillan said.

“It shows where we’ve come as a team and our level of individual skill to execute like that,” he said. “This was domination. It was really one-way traffic.”

Two Ohio substitutes were the recipients of Albini’s assists and help put the game away in the second half. Taylor Anderson scored her first career goal, while Patty Donahue notched the second score of her young career.

Such success off the bench points to a bright future for Ohio field hockey, Macmillan said.

“That is really exciting,” he said. “When you have that type of play going on, you know that as this team progresses that we’re going to be fine next year. Players like Patty and Taylor are going to play more year by year.”

Another Bobcat senior had a standout performance in her final home match. Goalkeeper Katherine Claeys started the first game of her career and notched a shutout with three saves.

“I figure it was a great team effort,” said Claeys, whose 69 minutes of play more than doubled her previous season total. “I really couldn’t do it without my defense.”

Despite her lack of game experience, Macmillan said he had no doubts about Claeys’ ability in goal.

“Katherine and our other seniors — who do the work, put the effort in, and are team-oriented — they deserve that opportunity,” he said. “She handled it perfectly well today.”

Against the Golden Flashes Friday, the Ohio offense was equally potent. Marcy Dull and Estienne Coetzee picked up two goals apiece to lead the attack for the win.

After dropping its first contest against Kent State (11-7, 6-3 MAC) this season, Dull said Ohio played with a little extra fire Friday.

“We came out with an aggressive, go-getter mindset,” she said. “That helped us to dictate the style of play. We were able to play our game as opposed to watching what they did and reacting to that.”

The Bobcats scored three goals within three minutes in the first half to pull ahead for good. Coetzee scored off a pass from her sister, Rachelle, in the 13th minute to kick things off. Albini then put back a rebound 17 seconds later, and Dull assisted Coetzee again on a fast break to give Ohio a 4-1 lead.

Once the ball got rolling, the offense became hard to stop, Dull said.

“After we got the first one going, we all got emotionally charged,” she said. “The team as a whole got excited, got aggressive in the circle and kept putting goals in.”

With one game left in the regular-season conference schedule, the pair of victories this weekend secured the second consecutive MAC regular-season title for the Bobcats.

“We set that as a goal in preseason, and it’s nice to fulfill our goals,” Macmillan said. “I’m very excited that we’ve done that with a game to go. We’ve put ourselves in a position that we can really focus on the game and not worry about the results.”