Penn State Field Hockey Earns Big Ten Championship on AstroTurf Field

Courtesy of The Daily Collegianr
Written by Jamie Romm
October 24, 2005

The last thing the Penn State field hockey team saw last year was a scoreboard that said, "Ohio State 3, Penn State 2," ending its disappointing 10-10 season in the Big Ten Tournament.

On Saturday the two teams were playing for at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championships with the only other undefeated Big Ten team, No. 7 Indiana, losing to Iowa.

This time the No. 6 Nittany Lions were the victors at AstroTurf Field, winning a 2-0 thriller against Ohio State in its record-breaking 16th win in a row and the team's fourth Big Ten Championship.

Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett sees a lot of differences in this year's 16-1 (5-0 Big Ten) squad, compared to last year.

"We really didn't have the scoring punch last year that we needed," Morett said. "This year's team has another year of maturity."

Scoring this year has not been a problem for the Lions, who have scored 63 goals so far in comparison to last year's final output of 40.

Freshman midfielder Ali Scola netted the first goal of the game early in the first half. Sophomore Mallory Weisen scored the second goal on a penalty stroke.

Weisen, who has been on the injured list for the last few weeks, was called into play especially for the stroke in a scene reminiscent of a call to bullpen in a baseball game.

The team's defense has also been sharp all season, only giving up 12 goals all season and allowing just 0.78 goals a game.

The Lions needed the defense to step up in the game against the Buckeyes, who are the only team in the Big Ten to average more goals a game than the Lions.

Junior back Carey Maser completely shut down OSU's high scoring duo of Lucy Clayton and Yesenia Luces.

Morett felt that the matchups on both sides of the ball were ones that were exciting to watch.

"Both teams had such deceptive players with the ball," Morett said. "They're just trying to deke the other girl and most players would get caught out of position. It was just a sign of two very good teams."

The atmosphere would be exciting enough between two top-10 teams but the fact that Saturday was also Senior Day gave the Lions even more reason to win.

With fans dressed as members of the Blue Band -- attempting and failing at playing the Penn State fight song -- the crowd was extra rowdy on a day where the cold and rain surrounded AstroTurf Field.

"It was just awesome," Morett said. "For a rainy day, I was just so proud."

Junior forward Annelise Legel seemed to feed off the crowd's energy where at one point in the game she ran the full length of the field to retrieve a ball that most thought was blown dead.

"I knew I could get it because it was trickling down there," Legel said. "I sprinted all the way down, but I wish I could have taken a little more time to set up a better shot."

With seniors Chase Bacon, Bekah Hostetler, Kristen Miller, Sara Cahill, Molly Schriver, Natalie Berrena and Megan Akstin playing their last regular season game at home, Morett felt that this game was extra special.

"I think it's just an awesome conference victory," Morett said.

"It says a lot about the determination and heart of this team and this senior class."