Cold close to season

Field hockey team falls to Iowa, 1-0, in continuation of game postponed because of snowfall

It was an eerie start to the game and an even weirder way for the season to end. The NCAA quarterfinal game between the MSU field hockey team and Iowa, postponed for weather reasons and finished Monday, started right where the game left off Sunday. No national anthem. No player introductions. They just started playing.

Chunks of ice and snow surrounding the field with the game beginning with 27:45 left, leaving less than a half for one team to turn the 0-0 tie in its favor.

MSU looked like it was going to take the game early, getting a few solid chances in the Iowa circle, only to be turned away by the Hawkeyes’ stifling defense.

The Spartans, as they had all season, controlled the ball for most of the game except for one break by the Hawkeyes.

With 20 minutes left in the game, Iowa pushed the ball up the right side of the field to forward Caroline Blaum. She dribbled the ball just outside the circle and shot the ball in front of the cage. It was there that forward Sarah Pergine poked the ball past MSU junior goalkeeper Elissa Unger to put Iowa on top 1-0.

With the lead theirs, Iowa ratcheted its defense, stalling MSU’s vaunted offense every time it made a significant drive down the field.

The tension in the stands rose with every second that ticked off the clock. On the field, every missed pass and mishandled ball was met with a sigh and a look of disgust.

Then, with three minutes remaining in the game, MSU finally was able to break through Iowa’s stout back line. The Spartans flooded the circle, forcing a penalty corner, but the shot was swept out of danger to the far side of the field.

The last few minutes were filled with MSU frantically trying to stop any push by the Hawkeyes and turn it into a scoring opportunity for itself.

“Just to get a corner and keep on moving the ball and working towards getting a goal or getting a corner to have another opportunity,” senior forward Michelle Ciliberti said.

The opportunity came as time was running out. With MSU deep in the Iowa zone, the players charged toward the cage, getting a call for a penalty corner.

With no time on the clock, and their season riding on one play, the Spartans piled every player they had around the circle in hopes of sending the game to overtime.

The fans rose to their feet and players on the bench inched closer to field, hoping to get a better view.

The pass in was right on the stick of senior back Geraldine Raynor. Raynor, playing in her last home game, was looking to finish her MSU career with a storybook ending.

The shot was right where it needed to be, just above the pads of outstretched Iowa goalkeeper Lissa Munley. However, Munley, a senior for the experienced Hawkeyes team, was there with her glove to bat the ball out of harm’s way, finishing the game to a chorus of cheers from her fellow Hawkeyes in the circle.

“We were going to do anything it took (to clear the ball),” Munley said. “Diving, sprinting, whatever it took to get the ball out because we knew the game was over after that.”

The Spartans finished the season 17-6 and will look to improve on this season next year, head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said.

“I think we were better prepared today coming out of the locker room,” van de Kerkhof said. “I knew that it would be a 1-0 game. Probably the team that scored first would be the winner, and that was the scenario … once again we were inches away from advancing to the Final Four.”