LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seemingly countless scenarios swirled around Ball State field hockey’s final regular season match against Bellarmine Friday evening. If the Cardinals lost, but one of Ohio or Longwood lost too, Ball State would make the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament as a fifth or sixth seed.
If the Cardinals lost and both Ohio and Longwood lost as well, the conference standings would not change. If Ball State lost and both Ohio and Longwood won, the three squads would have had identical records, invoking the convoluted tiebreaker rules.
If the Cardinals won, neither Ohio nor Longwood’s result would matter. Head coach Caitlin Walsh said five days prior to Ball State’s trip to Bellarmine that she didn’t want the Cardinals’ spot in the tournament to come down to what other programs did or didn’t do.
Walsh wanted Ball State to control its own fate.
“I told the team – not in a way to put added pressure on them – but, ‘It's do or die,’” Walsh said. “We would have to fight for it.”
Fight the Cardinals did, successfully controlling their own fate with a 2-1 victory against Bellarmine to clinch the fifth seed. It was fifth-year Emma Hilton’s goal early in the third period that put Ball State ahead for good, and she called her second score of the season one of the most memorable moments of her half decade playing for the Cardinals.
That goal means for Hilton, and seven other Ball State seniors or fifth-years, their collegiate field hockey days are not yet over.
“Every game, I’m going out like it’s my last,” Hilton said. “I didn't know what happened in the Longwood game, so I knew that we needed to win for me to keep playing, and for the other seniors and fifth years to keep playing.”
By halftime of Ball State’s match, the Lancers had lost to James Madison 2-0, meaning the Cardinals secured their spot in the conference tournament before their match had even ended. But like Hilton, no member of Ball State field hockey knew about it until after they already beat the Knights. Not even Walsh.
Although it would have been easy to assume the Cardinals knew they were headed to Oxford, Ohio, next week when nearly every player spent the last few moments of halftime dancing and laughing. Despite being tied with Bellarmine at halftime, Walsh doesn’t mind watching her team dance their cares away during tight spots if that’s what it takes to overcome periods of adversity.
“They know they have to show up in every game,” Walsh said. “ … Going through the journey we've been on and knowing that we’ve been in those tough spots, we're able to overcome and be resilient.”
The match was knotted at one apiece when Bellarmine freshman Annie Malloy found the back of the cage off a penalty corner with less than four minutes remaining in the first half, but Ball State scored its first goal of the match just less than six minutes after the match began.
Senior Jenna Wyckoff assisted junior Emma van Hal for the latter’s ninth goal of the season, and Wyckoff confirmed that Ball State’s objective was to score as quickly as possible once the match began.
In fact, the original plan was to score within the first five minutes of the first period. That didn’t happen, but Wyckoff was happy to help the Cardinals jump out to an early lead regardless.
When Ball State took the lead early in the third period, the remaining 20-plus minutes of play consisted almost entirely of the Bellarmine offense.
“Sticks down!” Walsh yelled constantly, reminding the Cardinals that they couldn’t afford a penalty late in the match. Although Ball State did allow four corners in the fourth period, none amounted to points for the Knights.
The final buzzer sounded and the Cardinals’ bench rushed the 11 players already on the pitch. In a similar scene to when Ball State defeated Ohio in overtime just a week prior, the black and red jumped up and down in a tightly squeezed circle to celebrate their first MAC Tournament berth since 2022.
While Wyckoff may have one less year in the program than players like Hilton, she too was suiting up under the weight of potentially playing in the final match of her career Friday night.
“Today was kind of a weird feeling,” Wyckoff said. “There was definitely a worry because we tend to have lapses here and there, but today we did a really good job containing them.”
Hilton reflected on the regular season, being honest about the fact that things were never easy for Ball State. The Cardinals endured two different losing streaks of at least four matches.
Before the season even began, fellow fifth-year Michaela Graney broke her right pinky finger and ended up missing the first eight matches. Others have played through pain in pursuit of just making the MAC Tournament, let alone winning it.
Now that the Cardinals have achieved the goal all five fifth-years set for themselves prior to the season, they don’t want their dream to be a one-and-done like last time.
“In a way, this would be a perfect, storybook ending,” Hilton said. “Now that we did it, we have everything to prove.”
Ball State (5-12, 4-4 MAC) squares off against No. 4 seed Kent State (6-11, 5-3) at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 in the first round of tournament play. The Cardinals lost to the Golden Flashes 1-0 in the regular season, but Walsh flashed a smile when she was told who Ball State’s first opponent would be in Oxford.
When Hilton and Wyckoff were told, their expressions told the story just the same.
“There’s a lot of revenge coming,” Wyckoff said.
Contact Kyle Smedley via email at kmsmedley213@gmail.com or via X @KyleSmedley_.
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