If there were only 25 minutes in a field hockey game, the No. 2-seeded Penn State field hockey team would be the Big Ten Champions right now.
Unfortunately for the Lady Lions, however, it was the other 45 minutes that did them in.
After defeating No. 7-seeded Indiana 8-0 Friday and No. 3 Iowa 3-1 Saturday to make it to the title round, No. 1 Michigan knocked off Penn State 3-2, ending the team's hopes of a Big Ten title. This is the second consecutive year that Michigan has come between Penn State and a title.
"We played really well in the first 10 minutes, then we lost our pace to the game and started playing tentatively," Penn State coach Char Morett said. "We picked it up in the last 15 minutes, but it was too late."
This was a rematch of sorts for the Lions, who lost to Michigan 1-0 on senior night at Bigler Field two weeks ago.
Remembering the sting of that loss gave the Lions fuel coming out of the gate. For the first 10 minutes of the game, Penn State was playing a superior game on both sides of the ball, but couldn't put anything in the net to show for it.
But, in a heartbeat, Michigan stole the momentum with a goal, to go ahead 1-0. The score yanked away most of Penn State's confidence.
"I think we played by our game plan. There were just a lot of mistakes that we made that turned the game around," senior co-captain Traci Anselmo said. "We worked really hard in the first 10 minutes and then they scored, and it took away a lot of our confidence because we had worked so hard and now we were down."
The first half ended with the Lions down by just one, but the Wolverines' goal pulled much of the life out of the Lions. Penn State was lucky to go to the locker room in such a scenario, as the defense was giving up rebounds on just about every Michigan scoring attempt.
Michigan came out and scored a second goal just 10 minutes into the second half. The two-goal deficit prompted Morett to call a timeout in hopes of getting her team back on track. Instead, Michigan came out of the timeout and scored a third goal to put Penn State back on its heals, 3-0.
But the threat of another loss to Michigan inspired Penn State to battle back into the game late in the second half. Middle/back Cenna Wilkerson punched in a goal with about seven minutes remaining in the game. Anselmo followed that up with a goal off a penalty stroke with 2:30 minutes remaining in the contest.
But the Lions' comeback fell short in the closing seconds of the game as Michigan came away with the 3-2 victory to clench the Big Ten title for the second year in a row.
"We were losing 3-0 for most of the game and we fought our way back in the last 15 minutes, but we just couldn't finish it up," Morett said. "We dug ourselves too deep a hole to dig our way back from."
The story was an altogether different one in Penn State's first two games of the tournament.
Penn State breezed through its first game against Indiana with the help of forwards Timarie Legel and Maegan Galie along with middle/back Jill Martz, each of whom scored twice in the contest. Middles Heather Conroy and Neilye Stoner added a goal apiece to round out Penn State's scoring.
Friday's match was Stoner's first since being sidelined with a broken thumb. Saturday's game against Iowa saw the return of forward Kiley Kulina, who had been out with a broken foot. Both Stoner and Kulina had been out since Penn State's contest with Michigan two weeks ago.
Anselmo said the first two games of the tournament were two of the best performances the team has had since losing to Michigan two weeks ago.
"I think as a team we clicked really well," Anselmo said. "We were ready to go out there and we weren't tentative at all."
But the loss could negatively affect the team's confidence as they head into the NCAA tournament next weekend. Some of the players, however, said they aren't worried about the team's confidence.
"I don't think it's going to hurt our confidence," Anselmo said. "We have the next few days of practice to get back on track and I don't think we're going to be down for long."
