Missed chances haunt Cardinals in loss to La Salle

Junior midfielder Carley Shannon attempts to get the ball around a La Salle defender at Briner Sports Complex on Oct. 16.  Shannon had one shot on goal in the game.  DN // Patrick Murphy
Junior midfielder Carley Shannon attempts to get the ball around a La Salle defender at Briner Sports Complex on Oct. 16. Shannon had one shot on goal in the game. DN // Patrick Murphy

Frustration continued to build as Ball State field hockey (6-9, 1-2 MAC) watched senior forward Lexi Kavanaugh’s second-half shot clang off of the crossbar, another good chance on goal wasted in the Oct. 16 3-1 loss to La Salle (7-7, 4-2 Atlantic 10).

“We were taking soft shots and not shooting on goal well enough,” said junior forward Abbey Main. “We were push-passing a lot when we needed to be hitting harder.”

Kavanaugh opened up scoring six minutes in, her fourth goal of the season, but La Salle countered a minute later with a goal from sophomore midfielder Logan Oh.

Redshirt junior Merinda Morley was later called for a foul in the circle, giving a penalty stroke to La Salle which was scored by sophomore forward Mackenzie Karcher.

Karcher would score again five minutes later on a deflected shot, putting La Salle ahead by the final 3-1 margin.

Ball State outshot La Salle 18-6 and held the Explorers to just one second-half shot. Nine of the Cardinals' shots were on goal, forcing the Explorers' senior goalkeeper Rachel Hartman to make eight saves. Main said Ball State should've finished better.

“We piled it straight into the keeper,” she said. “We were all in there but today we just looked tired. We weren’t putting all of our effort into actually finishing and we needed to be taking harder shots.”

Senior goalkeeper Jordan Dues had one save on the day. Kavanaugh finished with five shots.

Ball State returns to Mid-American Conference play Oct. 21 at Missouri State.

The team’s last home game of the season is Oct. 23 against Miami (8-7, 3-1 MAC) at Briner Sports Complex.

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