IU loses to No. 15 Michigan, shuts out Villanova

The IU field hockey team stayed home this weekend and played host to the No. 15 Michigan Wolverines on Friday and the Villanova Wildcats on Sunday.

On Friday, the Hoosiers lost to the Wolverines 4-3 in a game in which IU trailed 2-0 at halftime. The second half, however, was a different story.

The Hoosiers came out firing, as junior forward Emily Bowker scored IU’s first goal, seven minutes into the second half. Her teammate, junior back Danielle McNally, found the back of the net for the tying goal just two minutes later.

However, the Wolverines scored just one minute later to retake the lead.

Moments later, the Hoosiers retaliated with a goal coming from sophomore forward Nicole Volgraf, making the game 3-3. Michigan broke the tie just three minutes later, putting the Wolverines up for good, as they took the game 4-3.

The Hoosiers had a break at the final moments of the game, but time elapsed before they could get the shot off.

IU Coach Amy Robertson acknowledged her team’s hard effort in the second half but also mentioned there was no comfort in the loss.

“There is no moral victory for us, we wanted to win this game,” she said. “It’s not that we played afraid to lose, but we just didn’t play to win in the beginning.”

Bowker elaborated on how she was encouraged by her team’s effort and noted that Michigan is a young team finding success, and IU can do the same if they keep improving.

“Every time they scored, we scored, and that says something,” she said. “We have to keep getting better. Michigan is a young team too, and we will see them again in the Big Ten tournament and next year.”

Sunday’s game was a different story. The Hoosiers were on the winning side, defeating the Wildcats 4-0. This game was headlined with Fleetwood breaking the team record for most career points (110) and goals (43). Fleetwood tallied three goals in this game and assisted on sophomore midfielder Amanda Bennison’s first career goal.

Robertson expressed her happiness for Fleetwood and noted that this is something she had in mind since recruiting her. She also noted that Fleetwood is no stranger to breaking school records so, it came as no surprise.

“It’s a fantastic honor,”Robertson said. “Honestly when I recruited Morgan, I was very confident that was going to happen. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in many ways. She also held the career goal scoring record at her high school.”

As for Fleetwood, she acknowledged that she had no idea how close she was to breaking the record. However, she also mentioned that milestones have no effect on how she approaches the game and talked about how exciting it is to hold such records.

“It’s pretty cool, it’s a nice acknowledgement to have but, it doesn’t change the way I go into each game,” she said. “It’s a great accomplishment being a senior and being able to have that once I leave IU.”

Robertson acknowledged Fleetwood’s accomplishment is worthy of praise.

“We don’t usually make a big deal about honors, but this one is a huge deal,” she said. “It has been a long time since that has been broken. It’s exciting and a real positive heading into next week’s senior game.”