Recap courtesy of Kent State Athletic Communications
No. 5 Kent State 1, No. 4 App State 0
Box Score
OXFORD, Ohio – The Kent State Field Hockey defeated App State 1-0 on Wednesday afternoon in the MAC quarterfinals for the Golden Flashes first conference tournament victory since 2024.
The win brings Kent State to a much-anticipated MAC Semifinals matchup with MAC regular season champion UMass tomorrow at 11:30 in the morning. The other semifinal matchup will be between host-school Miami (OH) and No. 3-seeded James Madison after the Dukes shutout Ohio 2-0 earlier today.
The big story in Kent State's victory over App State was the dominant performance in goal by graduate transfer Michaela Skinner. The Chesapeake, Va. native had her best statistical performance of the season in the biggest moment of the year, racking up nine saves and helping to stop 12 penalty corners. The shutout was Skinner's second of the year, massively improving her save percentage to .671 and giving her just four shy of 100 saves on the year.
Kent State controlled the offensive possession in the first quarter, consistently getting chances to score against the Mountaineers. The first chance came when leading-scorer Eva Usoz had a good look from a penalty corner five minutes into the first quarter. Her shot was saved, however, by App State's Dakota Anderson. The Mountaineers' goalkeeper had four saves in the game.
App State's first solid chance to score came under a minute in the first when Sophia Baxter had back-to-back penalty corners saved by Michaela Skinner. Penalty corners were a strong part of App State's offense in the game, collecting three in the first half and 12 total. At the end of the first quarter, it was still a scoreless tie.
The rain and wind started really picking up in the second quarter as the field was under a torrential downpour. Players were slipping and the ball was becoming increasingly harder to hit as both defenses held their own heading into halftime. At the half, shots, shots on goals, and corners were all even, making the final stat line of a +7 penalty corner, +12 shot, and +5 shots on goal advantage for App State even that much more improbable.
The Mountaineers opened up the second half with a prime scoring chance after airing the ball down the field. App State's Sarah Callery collected the ball but missed the shot wide right, giving momentum back to Kent State.
The Golden Flashes got on the board midway through the third quarter after Sophia Livingston passed the ball from the right corner of the field to Alexa Knott. The ball was deflected off an App State player to the stick of Knott, who ricocheted it into the left-side pocket of the net. Knott's goal was her second of the year and Livingston was credited with her first assist of her collegiate career.
Ryli Zee got her 14th defensive save of the year off App State's lone penalty corner of the third quarter, shortly after Kent State took the 1-0 lead. Zee is now just one away from tying the program career defensive saves record.
App State had a great chance to tie the game with six minutes remaining in the third after Madie Baker missed a shot just wide right of the post of the goal. The game was still a 1-0 Kent State lead heading into an incredibly-tense final quarter.
The Mountaineers gave the Kent State defense everything they had in the fourth quarter, tallying eight penalty corners in the frame, including five in a row between the seven and six minute mark. Two of the App State corner shots were wide, another was blocked by Emily Robertson, and two were saved by Michaela Skinner. A separate App State penalty corner with two minutes remaining resulted in three shots saved by the Kent State defense as the Golden Flashes pulled off the victory in the defensive slugfest.
The Golden Flashes take on nationally 5th-ranked UMass in the MAC semifinals tomorrow at 11:30 a.m for a chance to make the conference tournament title game.
