The taste of a victory had been fading away over the past month for the Ball State University field hockey team, but it was rekindled as a comeback for the ages was made in Muncie.
Sighs of relief have been made by the Cardinals as they picked up their first Mid-American Conference win. They found a way to come together when it counts and outlast Missouri State University 4-3 on Saturday.
Ball State scored four goals in the final 29 minutes to come back from a 3-0 deficit. This is the first multiple goal comeback win since Ball State defeated Kent State University 3-2 on Nov. 14, 2007.
Junior midfielder Kaitlan Mitchell led the Cardinals with a pair of goals, including the game winning goal off a penalty corner in the 63rd minute.
Coach Annette Payne showed her excitement of a well-deserved victory after the game.
"I'm so happy for them," Payne said. "This is a game that they will never forget; this shows the true character of the team and what they are willing to do to get a win and what they're willing to fight for it together."
The Cardinals' last win came in their first weekend of play against Appalachian State University.
The beginning of the affair looked anything but promising as Missouri State had complete control of the first half of play.
The Bears wasted no time getting on the board when Missouri State's Alyssa Hile scored off a fast break seven minutes into the game.
Defenses held their ground through most of the first half until Ball State's defense allowed one more goal 30 seconds before the end of the half to Missouri State's Melissa Lantz.
"Our first half performance was not our best, but we knew we needed to respond in the second," Payne said.
During halftime, Payne kept her team focused on the job at hand.
"They realized during the half that they had a job to do," Payne said. "They realized it was a moment for them to respond as a team and just really dig deep and see the opportunity was there."
Lantz did not let up in the second half as she recorded her second goal of the match six minutes into the half.
Soon after that, the comeback for Ball State began.
Ball State's Brooke MacGillivary scored on an unassisted goal at the 41:56 mark, making the score 3-1.
The scoring frenzy for the Cardinals continued with Mitchell scoring her first goal of the season off a tip-in, putting the score at 3-2.
Ball State tied the match at the 59:53 off Morgan Cloutier's first goal of the year.
With emotions running high, Ball State did not stop there. Mitchell's second goal of the day and season gave the lead to Ball State for good at 4-3.
"We did a really good job of responding to them. We had a lot of energy and we raised our intensity level," Payne said. "This was a show of our whole team coming together, which sent a ripple effect through the team and they used that to get four goals."
Payne said the girls can take away things that they can use the rest of the season.
The Cardinals outshot the Bears 20 to 17 in the contest and had 10 penalty corners to the Bears four.
Goalkeeper Tiffany Shifflett had nine saves which brings her to 75 for the 2009 season.
Keeping the momentum up from this win is something that Payne wants her team to focus on.
"It's going to be huge," Payne said. "This week at practice they need to go hard and get ready for the weekend."
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