Ohio State to host First and Second Round of 2010 NCAA Women's Soccer tournament

The Ohio State women's soccer program, fresh off of their 2010 Co-Big Ten Championship, will host the first and second round of the 2010 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer tournament. Ohio State will play the North East Conference champion St. Francis (PA) Red Flash on Friday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. If they win on Friday, they will take on the winner of the at-large Virginia Tech Hokies and the Atlantic 10 champion Dayton Flyers at the Jesse on Sunday. Times have yet to be determined for Friday and Sunday's matches.

Buckeyes Defeat Michigan State 1-0, Clinch at least Share of Big Ten Title

November 5th, 2010 turned out to be a memorable night for the Ohio State Women's Soccer program as the Buckeyes defeated the Michigan State Spartans 1-0 on Senior Night at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. With the win, Ohio State clinched at least a share of the 2010 Big Ten title and could end up winning a consensus conference championship depending upon the result of the Michigan-Penn State match on Sunday afternoon.



Before Friday night's match, Ohio State honored 5 seniors that had given their heart and hustle to the OSU women's Soccer program for the last 4 years or so: defender and captain Lauren Beachy, defender Genna Brand, defender and three time captain Cassie Dickerson, midfielder Courtney Jenkins, and defender/midfielder Lauren Steuer. These Buckeye seniors have combined to make 270 starts during their time at Ohio State.



The winning goal came in the 14th minute when Paige Maxwell scored her 10th goal of the season by taking a beautiful cross from Lauren Granberg and beating Spartans goalkeeper Elizabeth Watza to the far post from eight yards out. The Buckeyes ended up outshooting the Spartans 7-3, including 4-0 on goal.



As previously mentioned, Ohio State has a chance to become outright Big Ten champions. If Penn State loses to or ties Michigan on Sunday afternoon, the Buckeyes will win the conference outright. If Penn State wins, the Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions share the conference title.



Ohio State will find out where they will be seeded in the upcoming 2010 NCAA tournament on Monday afternoon when they watch the selection show on ESPNU at 4:30 pm EST.

Buckeyes Succeed As Team, Individuals

Team: The Ohio State women’s hockey team took care of Syracuse in the first ever meetings between the two programs this past weekend in Columbus. The 5-1 and 6-2 out of conference wins came after the Buckeyes lost two close, heartbreaking games the week before in Wisconsin. With the wins Ohio State moved up one spot to No. 9 in this week’s USCHO.com poll, and is only two points behind No. 8 Minnesota.

(Note: Ohio State is also No. 9 in this week’s USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll)

The Buckeyes now face a 10 game WCHA stretch starting this week in Grand Forks, N.D. It will be Ohio State’s first look at a much improved, seventh ranked, North Dakota team.

Individual: Part of Ohio State’s early success can be attributed to the fact that a number of players have achieved individual accomplishments. Junior forward Laura McIntosh scored her 100 point on Oct. 29. Her classmate Natalie Spooner scored two goals in each game last weekend, and now has a nine game goal streak, 12 game point streak, and has scored a point in the last 20 series.

Also last weekend Ally Tarr got her first point as a Buckeye, and Amanda Boskovich and Becky Allis scored their first goals.

Three Buckeyes will be headed to Newfoundland to represent their country in the 2010 Four Nations Cup. The tournament will be held Nov. 9-13, and feature Natalie Spooner (Canada), Minttu Tuominen (Finland), and Annie Svedin (Sweden).

This leads to …

My Favorite Quote Ever: Ok first some background, last week to prepare for the radio broadcasts I was talking Annie Svedin about being named to the Swedish Four Nations Cup team and playing at Ohio State. One question I always like to ask athletes or anyone who goes to Ohio State and is not from Ohio, is what made them decide to come here?

I think being an out of state student myself I always found this interesting.

Annie’s response was something I had not heard before and I loved it.

She said when she came on her official visit to Ohio State,

“It was like heaven.”

Now, I have heard Ohio referred to as ‘God’s Country’ before, but I think Annie’s answer describes why we all go to Ohio State perfectly.

(If you are wondering I came here because I have a pure hatred for The University of Michigan and have been a Buckeye fan since I watched my first football game, the 1990 Hall of Fame Bowl. Ok, I really do not remember watching it since I was only 25 days old, but I am sure I did watch it.)

And just because I will take any excuse to play U2 ...

Big Win Over Minnesota

The Buckeyes won by a large margin in their 52-10 game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers last night. I was a little stunned after Minnesota quickly responded to tie the game at 7-7 after Ohio State had a nice drive to get their first TD. I was also surprised with how Minnesota completed a couple good deep balls during the game. But the Ohio State defense still had a pretty good game, only allowing 232 total yards.

The Buckeye offense had a productive night as well. Pryor passed efficiently, completing 18/22 for 222 yards. His interception was the only thing that I saw that was a bad mistake, other than that, I think he did everything he needed to do. Boom Herron had a great running game, one of the better rushing games I've seen in a long time from an Ohio State back, as he ran for 114 yards with nearly 7 per carry.

All is well for Buckeye Nation, I would be surprised if we don't move up back into the top 10, with Michigan State and Missouri losing. Although we could (and arguably should)get jumped by Nebraska, but I guess we will see when the standings are released.

No. 17 Buckeyes come up short against No. 14 Illini 2-1

The Buckeyes suffered their first Big Ten Conference loss as they dropped a 2-1 decision against the Illinois Fightin' Illini at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium Thursday night. Despite the loss, Ohio State remains at the top of the Big Ten standings with a 6-1-0 record in conference.

In the first half, there was not a lot of offensive opportunities for both teams as each team only had 5 shots total. That would change in the second half when Danica Wu in the 52nd minute put the Buckeyes on top 1-0 on not only her first goal of the season, but also her first goal of her Ohio State career. The freshman scored on a shot from twenty yards out that beat Illini goalkeeper Alexandra Kapicka in the top right hand corner.

Unfortunatley for the Buckeyes, the lead would be short lived as the Illini came roaring back with a pair of goals in the second half. Illinois tied the match in the 62nd minute when Illinois fresman midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo scored from 25 yards out on a shot that deflected off of the hands of Ohio State goal keeper Rachel Middleman and into the back of the net. The Illini would take the lead for good in the 84th minute when Niki Read found the right post from 30 yards out.

The Buckeyes will head to West Lafeyette this weekend to take on the Purdue Boilermakers. The game will be on Sunday, October 24th at 1:00 pm EST. Ohio State will then head to Bloomington, Indiana on October 31st to square off against the Indiana Hoosiers. Kickoff for that game is 12:00 pm EST. After those road contests, the Buckeyes return home to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium for their Senior Night. They will be facing the Michigan State Spartans on November 5th in their final regular season match at the Jesse. That game kickoffs at 7:30 pm EST.