Northwestern University Athletics
Jamieson's Journal: Off to a Fast Start
9/28/2010 12:00:00β―AM | Field Hockey
Sept. 28, 2010
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Senior defender Megan Jamieson will be providing written and video highlights from Northwestern's 2010 regular season in her blog, Jamieson's Journal. Below is entry No. 5 in the series.
I'm just going to come right out and say it -- we beat the Buckeyes! Ah doesn't that sound good? As good as saying it sounds, the win itself felt pretty spectacular as well. The long bus drive to Columbus didn't stray our focus on what we had to do in our Big Ten opener against the highest ranked team in the league; we came to play, fought hard and came away with a victory.
Before the game Tracey talked to us about opportunities and how important it would be to capitalize on them. If you look at the game on paper, we were truly able to do just that; we scored on two out of our four corners and held the Buckeyes scoreless on each of their 11 corners. Chelsea Armstrong was nearly perfect inside the circle scoring on two of her three shots. At the end of the day our tenacity in the circle and our ability to seize the scoring opportunities we were given helped us snap a 13-year losing streak against Ohio State.
Each of our goals packed plenty of excitement on Friday. The first goal from Chelsea developed as she passed by a few defenders below the 25-yard line and after passing the final defender in the circle blasted -- yes blasted, a shot pass the OSU goalie. Then in literally the final moments of the half, we earned a penalty corner as time expired. For those of you that may not be familiar with this type of situation, I will explain to you. Even though the clock shows no time, a team gets to take the corner, and can continue to play within the circle until they draw another corner, score a goal, or lose possession. This is also a unique opportunity because all 10 field players are at the circle edge against only four defenders and a goalie. After the initial shot on cage the ball was rebounded, re-shot and a scramble in front of the cage began until Frank (Catherine Franklin) swept the ball into the back of the cage, increasing our lead to two.
We knew the Bucks would come out swinging after half, and they scored two goals to tie the game back up. We earned our fourth and final corner around the 12-minute mark Chelsea buried a shot past the OSU goalie for the second time Friday and we were ahead 3-2. The remainder of the half we were pressured deep into our defensive zone and but with patient and tenacious defense, we kept OSU from scoring again.
It feels great to have our first Big Ten win under our belt, and the surge of confidence going in against another ranked opponent Kent State on Sunday. It is crazy to think we are already halfway done with our season, but some of our toughest games have yet to come.
So with that being said, stay tuned because this is when it gets exciting! Anything can happen in any Big Ten game, and we've already proved to (and probably shocked) the rest of league that we will come out punching and ready for each game.
Go 'Cats! I hope to see all of you out at Lakeside Field at noon Sunday when we face Kent State!
