Oct. 31, 2003

Box Score

OXFORD, Ohio - Senior Angie Snedden (Sarnia, Ontario) gave the Miami (1-15, 0-9 Mid-American Conference) field hockey team a brief 1-0 lead in a well-played 3-1 loss to visiting Kent State (9-9, 7-2 MAC) on Friday afternoon at the Miami Turf Field. The Golden Flashes are now two games up in the MAC standings for the No. 1 seed, while the RedHawks fall short of getting their first win against KSU since 1996.

The RedHawks scored the first goal of the game at 11:21 in the first half when Snedden connected for her eighth goal of the season. Snedden gained control of a long hit that came from out of the circle and then made a move around the Kent State goalie to open up the scoring chance. The goal is Snedden's 23rd of her career, tying her for ninth all-time at Miami, and pulling her within one point of the top-10 for career points.

KSU's Stephanie Mirner responded quickly with her first goal of the season at 16:05, tying the game, 1-1. Mirner stopped the ball on a penalty corner and hit the ball directly into the goal without making a pass after the stickstop. Becky Rahaim was credited with an assist for dragging the ball on the penalty corner.

About 13 minutes later in the first half Kent State added its second goal to take a 2-1 lead. Andria Close deflected a Jennifer Melnyk shot over the pads of freshman goalie Kerri Matthews (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) for her second goal of the season.

Matthews locked up the pads from that point on, stopping a total of 10 shots in the contest and many in between Kent State's second goal and the end of the game. Miami made several rushes in the second half, but could not get past the Golden Flashes' defense that allowed only three penalty corners in the contest.

Kent State's Berber Rischen finally got the better of Matthews when she hit a wicked reverse-stick shot into the opposite corner of the goal at 68:32 in the second half. Berber's goal was all the insurance Kent State needed as it closed out the final 1:28 for the 3-1 victory.

KSU goalie Jessica Creeden made three saves in the victory, while her team recorded a total of seven penalty corners.

Miami wraps up its regular season tomorrow, Nov. 1, when it plays its final MAC contest against Ohio at 1 p.m. The game will be preceded by Senior Day and Parents' Weekend announcements.