Ohio State team huddles before the first half of Ohio State’s game against Robert Morris. Ohio State won 13-8. Credit: John Huether | For The Lantern
Ohio State women’s lacrosse looks to continue its success in the young 2020 campaign Wednesday at home against Kent State.
The Buckeyes (2-0) square off against the Golden Flashes (0-0) in their first-ever meeting after two opening weekend victories.
In her first two games as Ohio State’s head coach, Amy Bokker said she can feel the growth of the team, which has improved during each contest.
“It’s a matter of building that chemistry and playing well together,” Bokker said. “For me, in those first couple games, it wasn’t necessarily about how many goals we scored, but how we were playing and how we were scoring. I think that’s what we want to take a lot of pride in.”
The Buckeyes took down Duquesne 13-9 Friday in their season opener and followed that performance with a 13-8 win against Robert Morris on Sunday.
“I thought they made some pretty good adjustments and came out fired up in the second half of each game,” Bokker said.
One key part of the early success has been the will of Ohio State senior attackman Liza Hernandez.
Hernandez led the team in her junior campaign with 61 points and finished second in goals behind then-senior midfielder Baley Parrott. This past weekend Hernandez had two multigoal games, collecting a total of six points on four goals and two assists.
“[I’m] just really trying to figure out how to play together with the others around me,” Hernandez said. “I think when there’s that chemistry going, I think that’s when all of us are at our best.”
Kent State will have its hands full containing Hernandez in its 2020 debut, following a Feb. 7 postponement of its matchup with Cincinnati.
The inaugural campaign for the Golden Flashes was not kind, as the team finished 2-15 and 1-5 in Atlantic Sun Conference play, with its lone win coming against Howard.
“I think first and foremost we need to come out strong and set the tone from the start. I think we need to sharpen things up from last weekend and just play aggressive,” Hernandez said.
Ohio State looks to key in on Kent State’s inability to keep the ball out of the net. In 2018-19, Kent State allowed 282 goals, almost double the 142 goals they scored as a team.
“We want to make sure we’re competing and executing early, coming out of the gates strong,” Bokker said.
For Kent State, this could be due to inexperience. The team returns 18 players from this past season’s roster, but junior midfielder Emily Speckman serves as the team’s lone upperclassman.
Sophomore midfielder Abby Jones is a Golden Flash the Buckeyes will need to watch. In her freshman season, she started all 17 games, finished second on the team behind sophomore attackman Lluna Katz with 32 goals and led the team in assists with 20.
“I know Kent State is really well coached. [Head coach] Brianne [Tierney] has done a great job building that program and continuing to build the program,” Bokker said.
On the opposite side, Ohio State boasts nine seniors on its roster. Four of the Buckeyes — Hernandez, goalie Jill Rizzo and defensemen Emily Skrzypczak and Regina Doty — hold captain positions along with junior midfielder Lindsay Epstein.
“For us, putting on the uniform is different,” Bokker said. “I feel really good that we’ve gotten to do that two times already. It is super special to do that when you have the opportunity to do that, and we have the opportunity to do that again tomorrow night.
The Buckeyes will put their experience on display at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
