Michaela Graney experienced the same wide range of emotions the Cardinals’ 26 other players and staff felt in its 3-1 loss to UC Davis. Her two-hour journey, in particular, may have just been turned up to 11.
When Graney found the back of the cage for her first goal of the season on a breezy Tuesday afternoon in Muncie, it served as an example of how valuable the fifth-year defender is to Ball State field hockey.
The Cardinals took a blow when Graney missed the first eight matches of the 2024 campaign with a broken right pinky finger, but her injury is now old news after playing in Ball State’s last five matches.
Graney’s Tuesday goal came early in the Cardinals’ contest against the Aggies, set up by a penalty corner outlet pass from fellow fifth-year Emma Hilton which led to an assist from another fifth-year, Paloma Gómez Rengifo. Graney said the pass was originally supposed to set her up for a left-side shot, however, she ended up getting her look on the right side. Her preferred side.
When the ball ricocheted off the back of the cage Graney was swarmed by seven of her teammates to celebrate what Graney described as the payoff to her climb back to action after a frustrating first half of the season watching from the sidelines.
Her main focus is not to score, but Graney finished her Mid-American Conference (MAC) defensive player of the year last season with seven goals.
“My mind just changes automatically,” Graney said. “[I think] ‘Now I'm attacking.’ As soon as that's done, it’s like, ‘The goal is done, the corner is done and now I'm back on D.’”
Until there was less than eight minutes remaining in the match, it looked like Ball State was en route to its first victory since Oct. 4 against Longwood. Head coach Caitlin Walsh said afterward that the Cardinals’ advanced the ball upfield in a much more efficient manner than they did against Queens and App State last weekend.
However, with 7:32 remaining, UC Davis sophomore Katie Kim snuck a ball past Ball State fifth-year goalkeeper Hannah Johnston to tie the match at one apiece. Thirty-two seconds later, the Aggies took the lead when senior Liselotte Koop scored off a penalty corner.
Before it was all said and done, UC Davis scored once more when senior Skylar Richards extended the final score to a 3-1 Aggies win. Not only are four straight losses a point of concern for the Cardinals, but Ball State has now allowed 17 points in the fourth period this season.
For comparison, the Cardinals have 18 total points in 2024.
“That's something that we have to take care of on our end if we want to see the postseason,” Walsh said. “I just don't think we're playing the entire 60 minutes.”
Along with her head coach, Graney was frustrated after the loss too. However, the Cape Town, South Africa, native said she is sticking to the motto that former team captain Libby Kraus taught her before she graduated out of the program in 2023.
What keeps Graney focused when she can feel herself getting tired or when she makes an uncharacteristic mistake is Kraus’ “three second rule,” which Graney said she and many other Cardinals still use. After a physical error or a mental lapse, the three second rule allows Ball State’s players to dwell on that mistake for just three seconds before flushing it away.
Even still, Graney said the Cardinals played complacent at times against the Aggies.
“I don't want to have another season of not going to the tournament,” Graney said. “We're lucky that they're sending six teams this year, and we really do need to take advantage of that change going into these next few games.”
With just three games left in the 2024 campaign, the Cardinals sit at fifth place in the MAC standings with a 2-3 conference record (3-11 overall). Those last three games happen within a seven-day span and they all come against conference foes, the first of which a 3 p.m. match against seventh-place Ohio (5-9, 2-4 MAC) this Friday, Oct. 25.
Walsh believes hosting two of the last three matches of the season does put even more of a “must-win” label on those contests.
“Every game is important, of course, conference is a little bit more so,” Walsh said. “We're just taking every game like it's our last.”
Before the season began, Graney talked about how vital it was to get back to the MAC Tournament after missing out last season. Having made the series in 2022, Graney knows how different the feelings are between playing in the postseason and not.
And she’s using both feelings as motivation to extend her collegiate field hockey career past the regular season.
“We want to think of what the feeling was when we did make it, but this has been a really, really tough season,” Graney said. “I think what's driving us more is feelings like today. We don't want to feel like this again.”
Contact Kyle Smedley via email at kmsmedley213@gmail.com or via X @KyleSmedley_.
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