Field Hockey Begins MAC Tournament Play On Friday
11/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Golden Flashes seek their ninth MAC Tournament title this weekend
MAC Tournament home page
KENT, Ohio – Having claimed the No. 1 seed and a share of their third straight Mid-American Conference regular season title, the Kent State field hockey team heads to Central Michigan for the 2010 MAC Tournament this weekend. The Golden Flashes begin play at 11:00 a.m. on Friday when they face the winner of Thursday's Missouri State-Central Michigan contest.
Kent State, which won the MAC Tournament in 2008, is seeking its second title in three years and ninth overall.
The hottest team in the league heading into the tournament, the Golden Flashes have won six straight to improve to 13-6 overall and 8-2 in the MAC following Sunday's 4-2 win at Missouri State. During the six game streak the team has out scored their opponents 35-11 while allowing an average of just six shots on goal per game. The defense has been so suffocating that the Golden Flashes have not surrendered a single shot attempts in the final 24 minutes of the past three games.
The six game streak has also vaulted the team into the womensfieldhockey.com top 20 weekly poll. Coming in at No. 20 this week its the second time this season the organization has ranked the Golden Flashes in the top 20. The team was previously ranked No. 18 the week of Sept. 20 following a weekend in which they defeated No. 5 Michigan State 2-0 which marked their second win over a top 10 team in a span of two weeks.
Offensively, Kent State ranks as one of the top scoring teams in the nation. The Golden Flashes head into the tournament ranked 10th in the country with 3.37 goals per game and eighth with an average of 9.21 penalty corners. The 64 total goals scored by Kent State this season are tied for the 10th most in league history and are the highest single season total by the Golden Flashes since the program produced a league record 106 in 2000.
Senior Rachel Miller (Bathurst, Australia/MacKillop College), a two-time All-American, has helped set up the offense leading the team with 12 assists while adding 10 goals scored. She is one of only six players in the country to have recorded double digits in both goals scored and assists this season. Junior Debbie Bell (Hamilton, New Zealand / Waikato) leads the MAC and ranks sixth in the country with 22 goals scored this season.
This also marks the first time since 2000 that Kent State has had five different players score at least seven goals in a season. Joining Miller and Bell on the list are freshman Rebecca Lee (Bathurst, Australia/The Scots School) with nine goals, and Carla Johl (Hamilton, New Zealand/Waikato) and Nicole Leach (San Diego, Calif/Mira Mesa) with seven goals each.
This year marks the seventh time Kent State has been the No. 1 seed in the MAC Tournament. The Golden Flashes are 8-2 all-time as the top seed with four titles. The team is 25-17 (.595) all-time in the conference tournament which began in 1983.
Miami (13-6; 8-2), which shared the regular season title with Kent State is the No. 2 seed followed by Ohio (11-9; 7-3), Central Michigan (5-13; 3-7), Missouri State (5-14; 2-8) and Ball State (6-13; 2-8). Thursday's quarterfinal matches place Ohio against Ball State and Central Michigan against Missouri State. Kent State and Miami both earned byes into the semifinals which will take place on Friday. The championship game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
The winner of the 2010 MAC Tournament will travel to the winner of the Patriot League for a NCAA play-in game next Tuesday, Nov. 9.
Kent State owns a 5-2 all-time record against Central Michigan in the MAC Tournament and has never faced Missouri State.
