Olympic Sports Recap: Men’s Soccer Captures Big Ten Regular Season Title And Women’s Soccer Open Big Ten Tournament With Win
Fourth-Ranked Field Hockey Closes Out Regular Season With Weekend Split
No. 4 Ohio State field hockey needed a full weekend to pick up a win, dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker to No. 1 Northwestern Friday before resurging with an emphatic 7-1 drubbing of Central Michigan Sunday in the regular season finale.
The Buckeyes trailed 1-0 to the Wildcats (18-0, 8-0 Big Ten) after the first quarter with a goal by sophomore forward Ashely Sessa. Graduate forward Makenna Webster tallied the equalizing goal at 16:31 in the second quarter on a penalty stroke, but another goal by Sessa at 27:42 slammed the door shut on Ohio State.
Ohio State turned the bitter taste of Friday’s loss into an offensive clinic against the Chippewas, scoring a goal in every quarter en-route to the six-goal victory.
Central Michigan (3-14, 0-7 MAC) opened the scoring with a goal from sophomore forward Cameron Pluciennik, but that would prove to be all the scoring the Chippewas would do for the day.
The next seven goals came from seven different Buckeyes, with Webster and freshman forward Sienna Golden book-ending the scoring efforts.
Ohio State (14-4, 4-4 Big Ten) now turns to the opening round of the Big Ten tournament, where it’ll take on Rutgers in College Park, Md., on Thursday.
No. 1 Men’s Soccer Beats Maryland For Big Ten Regular Season Trophy
Hello Big Ten regular season championship.
For the first time since 2015, No. 1 Ohio State men’s soccer hoisted the Big Ten regular season trophy with a 2-1 win over No. 10 Maryland on Sunday, giving the Buckeyes their fifth regular season title in program history.
Redshirt senior defender Thomas Gilej scored his first goal of the season at 13:49 for the Buckeyes and 20 minutes of game time later, junior midfielder Ashton Bilow put the game on ice with his second goal this year.
The Terrapins (8-4-5, 5-3-2 Big Ten) would respond with a goal from junior defender Luca Costabile at 50:34 but could not bring the game to a tie in the final 39 minutes.
Ohio State (12-1-3, 7-1-2 Big Ten) also earned the top-seed in the upcoming Big Ten tournament where it will have a bye before taking on the winner of four-seed Washington and five-seed Michigan State on Nov. 10 in Bridgeview, Ill.
No. 10 Women’s Soccer Defeat Wisconsin In Opening Round of Big Ten Tournament
In a season of inevitables for Ohio State women’s soccer, the forward duo of senior Kailyn Dudukovich and sophomore Amanda Schlueter have always been there: ready to score, ready to assist and ready to win.
It was that same forward duo that lifted the Buckeyes to a 1-0 victory over Wisconsin (9-5-4, 5-3-3 Big Ten) in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, as Schlueter assisted Dudukovich with 11 minutes left to play in the only score of the day.
Junior goaltender Molly Pritchard saved one shot in the winning effort.
The Buckeyes received the opposite result on Monday when they fell 1-0 to No. 4 and top-seeded USC in the Big Ten Quarterfinals in extra time.
While both teams had great opportunities to break through with a goal – with Ohio State freshman defender/midfielder Jacinda Bonham hitting the crossbar on an early-first half shot and the Trojans missing two first-half crosses – the game remained scoreless through the entire 90 minutes of regulation.
The Buckeyes’ fate was sealed just a minute and a half into the extra period, however. Senior forward Maile Hayes dished a nifty pass to freshman forward Jaiden Anderson near the goal, who saw her shot attempt get tipped by the hand of Buckeye junior goalie Molly Pritchard – who of six saves on the day – but eventually trickle passed the white line for the game-winner.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Ohio State can still earn a spot in the NCAA tournament and will await their seeding during the selection show set for 4 p.m. next Monday on NCAA.com.
No. 2 Women’s Ice Hockey Sweeps St. Thomas
The second-ranked Ohio State women’s ice hockey team had a weekend consisting of dominance followed by nail biting, as the Buckeyes beat St. Thomas 5-1 Friday before needing overtime to take down the Tommies 1-0 on Saturday.
St. Thomas (4-5-1, 2-5-1 WCHA) kicked Friday off with a goal from the stick of sophomore forward Madison Brown before Ohio State erupted for five straight goals.
Sophomore forward Joy Dunne scored back-to-back to give the Buckeyes a 2-1 lead and graduate forward Jenna Buglioni added her fifth career short-handed goal in the second period.
Ohio State added two more goals from two different forwards in the third period, this time around coming from sophomore Jocelyn Amos and freshman Jordyn Petrie.
Graduate netminder Amanda Thiele notched 18 saves in the victory.
Saturday’s affair witnessed over 60 minutes of scoreless hockey, a head-scratching amount of time considering Ohio State’s 40-8 shot on goal advantage over that same frame.
But, just 21 seconds into overtime, junior defenseman Emma Peschel gave the game its curtain call and the Buckeyes (11-2-2, 6-2-2 WCHA) their fifth-straight win.
Ohio State will be idle next weekend before hosting No. 1 Wisconsin on Nov. 15-16.
Volleyball Picks Up Back-To-Back Wins
In attempts to avoid a more frightening season, Ohio State women’s volleyball picked up wins over Iowa on Oct. 31 and Michigan State on Sunday to snap a five-match losing skid.
It was a sweep for the Buckeyes on Halloween, winning the three sets 25-21, 25-16 and 25-23 respectively.
A 7-1 run by Ohio State led to the first-set win before a 5-0 run closed out the second set to set up the sweep.
Graduate outside hitter Emily Londot tallied 11 kills in the match while graduate middle back Rylee Rader chipped in nine kills of her own in the victory over Iowa (9-15, 3-9 Big Ten).
Ohio State only needed one more set than it did on Friday to take down the Spartans (8-15, 1-11 Big Ten) on Sunday, winning the final three sets of the match after dropping the first set 25-23.
Set No. 2 was a thrilling 26-24 victory for the Buckeyes, as Ohio State stormed back from being down 24-21 by scoring five straight.
The Buckeyes won the third set 25-22 and the fourth 25-18 to capture their second win in as many matches. Londot added to her stellar weekend with 17 kills and now has at least 10 kills in every match this season.
Coming up, Ohio State (10-12, 3-9 Big Ten) takes on rival Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Friday.