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Red and White fall to Northwestern, prepare for Ohio State

Miami sophomore midfielder/forward Geagy Pritchard attempts to get past a Northwestern defender during Miami’s 5-1 loss.
Miami sophomore midfielder/forward Geagy Pritchard attempts to get past a Northwestern defender during Miami’s 5-1 loss.

By Sadie Martinez, For The Miami Student

The Miami University women's field hockey team lost its second game of the season 5-1 to No. 5 Northwestern University. The RedHawk's lone goal was scored by senior back Ali Froede and was assisted by senior back Shannon Regan and junior midfielder Bea Dechant.

Despite the numbers on the scoreboard, the team was in high spirits after the game as they stretched and listened to head coach Inako Puzo.

"I think we did a better job of listening to the game plan today and believing in it," Froede said. "I know we didn't get the score and outcome we wanted, but I think we did a lot better job trusting ourselves, the coaching staff, and everything on the field. We played a lot better than we did on Saturday even though it wasn't the result that we wanted."

Despite the first two games resulting in a loss for the RedHawks, the team remains positive.

"Aside from the scoreboard our hard work is slowly starting to pay off," senior back Gabby Golach said. "The basis of our game is passing, believing in our game plan and our structure. As long as we maintain our structure and we continue to pass the ball I don't think we'll have to change too much aside from that."

Goldach said that in order for the team to succeed its main focus needs to be on trusting their ability to pass the ball.

"The crucial thing for us is passing," Goldach said. "Our coach always says we play a passing game. We really started to put faith in that and trust each other on the field and trust that the pass is going to go through and make the right cut. I think its really developing nicely."

The team centers its game plan according to the other team's strengths and weaknesses.

"We try to attack each game based on what the strengths and weaknesses are of the other team," Froede said. "Every game we go into we focus on their press, their ball, their back, so we kind of adjust our game structure to who ever we are playing in our next game. So that will be our focus from here on out until we play Ohio State."

The RedHawks' next three games are against highly ranked competitors. They face Ohio State University, No. 1 University of Maryland and No. 6 University of Virginia.

"Ohio State is always a tough game," Froede said. "No. 1 Maryland and No.6 UVA for our next couple games … it definitely doesn't get easier but its awesome to see how even with our high ranking schedule and high level of play we are still able to get better every time."

The next game for the RedHawks is 5 p.m. Friday at Ohio State.