Blue stickers snap losing streak, 4-1

Although yesterday was Senior Day at Ocker Field, the Michigan field Hockey team's freshmen were the ones who shined. The Wolverines dominated Ohio State (3-6 Big Ten, 10-6 overall) in a 4-1 victory to halt their two-game losing streak. Michigan lost to No. 4 Penn State on Friday, 4-2.

In attendance was the Michigan ice hockey pep band and an extremely large and vocal crowd. The combination seemed to pep up the Wolverines and propel them to a strong start.

With 22:48 left to play in the first half, freshman forward Jessica Rose took a pass from sophomore midfielder Catherine Foreman. Rose lined a shot from the left side of the arc past the outstretched arms of Ohio State freshman goalie Gillian Batey

SARA SCHENCK/Daily The Michigan field hockey team returned to its winning ways yesterday on Senior Day in its 4-1 victory over Ohio State.

to give the Wolverines an early 1-0 lead.

Neither team was able to create scoring opportunities until 8:58 remained in the half, when Michigan (7-3, 14-6) put the ball in the net again. But after the referees conferenced, the shot was disallowed because no Michigan player touched the ball inside the arc.

Seven minutes later, with 2:05 left in the first, freshman midfielder Molly Powers scored one that did count. Off a penalty corner, the Wolverines pounced on the ball and barraged Batey. After several tough saves, Batey could not stop Powers, who scored unassisted.

Michigan started the second half with a bang. After five minutes, it had an opportunity to score on another penalty corner.

On that corner, junior midfielder Courtney Reid zipped a pass to Foreman, who stopped the ball and set up senior defender Erica Widder for a shot. Widder took the ball and lofted it over the Ohio State defense and past the outstretched arms of Batey to score one of Michigan's weirdest goals of the season.

The goal gave the Wolverines a commanding 3-0 lead. Widder's eccentric shot has a technical name called an overhead or lift. Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz commented that Widder's unorthodox shot was no mistake.

"We've been working on it a lot. (Widder) has a wonderful overhead," Pankratz said. "Normally with a goalkeeper like (Batey), we don't do that because she stands up and she's pretty tall, but we just wanted to get it on cage for rebound. It was a perfect shot and it worked out great."

Ohio State came right back, however, and junior midfielder Katie Hobson scored off of a penalty corner with 22:25 left in the game.

Michigan responded to extinguish Ohio State's short-lived fire when Foreman tallied her third assist of the day, passing the ball to Powers, who found Batey out of position to put away the Buckeyes for good. Powers, who scored twice today, said she felt her goals were extra special with all the support.

"(Scoring) was really exciting especially with pep band here," Powers said. "When you take your victory trot back to the fifty, it's extremely invigorating. The yelling and screaming gets you riled up. Every goal is so much more exciting."

The victory gives Michigan momentum going into this weekend's upcoming Big Ten Tournament. The win was much needed after disappointing losses to Iowa and Penn State.

"We played really well against Iowa," Pankratz said. "We played really well against Penn State and didn't win. The team, even though we were playing well, felt a little tentative about our success. Today was really important for them to get reinforced that we are playing really well."

11-01-99