Ohio takes on depleted Minutewomen

by Chris Littmann
Staff Writer

In the final game before opening Mid-American Conference play, the Ohio field hockey team takes on the winless Minutewomen from Massachusetts.

The Bobcats (1-3) travel to East Lansing, Mich., for a game against the perennial Atlantic-10 conference powerhouse.

Massachusetts, however, like Ohio, is spending most of the early season replacing players lost from last season. The Minutewomen lost five seniors last season, including three-time All-American Anke Bruemmer.

Ohio underwent a similar transition in its first four games this season after trying to replace four all-conference selections from last season.

Forward Lindsay Rothenberger is one of the many freshmen being counted on to contribute early. Rothenberger, who has two goals this season, said she knew she would have to be able to play right away.

"I knew I had to work hard coming in," Rothenberger said. "I was confident I could play with them it was just a matter of working hard."

Ohio coach Shelly Morris said she is not putting a large emphasis on Massachusetts and their 0-5 record.

"I've been focusing more on ourselves at this point by fixing things we're doing on the field," she said. "I think we proved that if we come out and play like we did against Princeton, we can be a really good team."

Midfielder Andrea Voros said she does not know what to expect from Massachusetts.

"They're an up-and-down team at the moment," Voros said. "So in a way we're looking at them like a Princeton, where we just need to go out and play our hardest."

After the first four games, Ohio has established its own style. They are utilizing short, quick passes when moving the ball down the field to beat the defense, Morris said.

"We have to find consistency with it (style of play)," she said. "We're working toward it right now, but we're not going to know until we show up on Sunday."

After playing games on back-to-back days in two of the last three weekends, Morris said she was not content to be playing only one game at this stage of the season.

"I kind of wish we had two games, we're really stretching things out here," she said. "We almost need some back-to-back so we can feel the pressure and turn it around. We have almost too much time in between these games to think about what we've done, to analyze and over analyze, myself included."

Ohio takes the field against Massachusetts at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in East Lansing, Mich.