Ohio State football got back on track this weekend. The rest of the athletic program has been performing too. Take a look and see what's happened this week around the Oval.
Men's Soccer wins 5th straight Shutout
Since giving up three goals in a 3-0 home loss to Florida International on Aug. 27, the Ohio State men's soccer team has made the necessary adjustments. Those adjustments? Not giving up goals — at all. They've shut out five straight opponents.
Their run most likely isn't sustainable, though over the last five games they've outscored their opponents 9-0. Two of those games came over the last week, a 3-0 win over Penn State on Tuesday Sept. 12 before going to Rutgers Sunday afternoon and heading home with a 1-0 win.
Against the Nittany Lions, the Buckeyes fighting off the rain was harder than their opponent. After going scoreless in the first half, the second half was all Bucks.
Niall Logue scored in the 50th minute off a free kick to give the Buckeyes the only lead they'd need. Senior striker Nate Kohl got his first goal of the year at 55:47, picking off a Penn St. ball and then finishing into the left of the net.
To cap off the night, freshman Mitch Bergman got his first career goal — a header off a long pass up the left side from Kevin Blackwood to which Bergman angled back across into the goal.
Congrats, @mbergman14 on your first collegiate goal! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/aYXKxnJtgi
— hioStMSOC (@OhioState_MSOC) September 13, 2017
Buckeyes Dump The Knights
Riding off their four consecutive shutouts, OSU decided it wasn't done with allowing zero goals, getting their fifth to conclude the weekend against Rutgers.
Ohio State goaltender Parker Siegfriend pitched his sixth shutout of the year — leading the nation in the category — only facing two shots on goal throughout the entire match.
Rutgers played the Buckeyes evenly the entire match. The difference maker came on the leg of Abdi Mohammed. The junior scored on a penalty kick in the 78th minute.
There were a total of six yellow cards on the afternoon, with Rutgers committing four of those. Dante Perez was given a red card in the 82nd minute, giving OSU a man advantage for the remainder of the match and helping ensure a Buckeye win.
Afterwords, the team couldn't help but celebrate the fifth consecutive shutout.
Updated name. pic.twitter.com/0zNrBEEFcX
— hioStMSOC (@OhioState_MSOC) September 17, 2017
Women's soccer explodes then falters
It was a mark of two tales for the women's soccer team over the last week. The Buckeyes won their Big Ten opener by scoring seven goals on Illinois before losing a 1-0 match at Northwestern Sunday afternoon.
The seven goals in the 7-0 shutout over the Illini set a program record for a Big Ten match. The record was reached on part by goals from Sarah Edwards, who scored twice within the first 15 minutes of the match.
OSU would get goals from Eleanor Gabirel and Riley Bowers to close the half with a 4-0 lead. Gabriel finished one from yards out into the upper left corner, while Bowers scored her first career goal into the upper right quadrant from 25 yards away.
The second half was more of the same for the Buckeyes. They scored three more times, with Marike Mousset, Sammy Edwards and Bowers second of the night capping off a 7-0 win in Columbus.
Buckeyes Goal-scoring Well Comes Up Dry
Three days after scoring seven goals on the same playing surface, OSU women's soccer couldn't muster a single goal in their 1-0 loss to Northwestern.
Surely they'd trade a couple of the goals they got Thursday, as the difference maker in this one came from a Wildcat goal in the 37th minute from Kayla Sharpies.
After half the Buckeyes tried to do everything they could to get on the board — OSU outshot Northwestern 8-2 in the second 45 — though to no avail.
OSU kicks off a Big Ten road trip with the first leg coming Friday at 8:05 in Lincoln against Nebraska.
XC: Women Finish 1st, men 5th in Nashville
Finishing with a score of 60 points, the women's cross country team finished first of 17 teams at the Commodore Classic at Vanderbilt.
Lainey Studebaker finished third to finish at the top of the lineup for the Buckeyes, reaching a personal best 5k time and finishing 17:34.8.
All scoring runners for the Buckeyes finished within the top-20. Sarah Kanney finished 10th (17:50.7) and Abby Nichols was not far behind, finishing 12th in 17:54.5.
Rounding up for OSU cross country, Caroline Millican finished 19th (17:59.9) in just her second collegiate race while Christine Frederick finished right behind, coming in 20th in 18:02.5.
The title in Nashville marks the first victory for the Buckeyes since last year's season opener at the Queen City Invite.
Men Finish Middle of the Pack
Improving on their season start at Indiana when they finished 5th out of six, men's cross country ran their way to a 6th place finish out of 15 teams in the men's race at the Commodore Invitational.
Senior Evan Stifel finished 10th (25:17.9) in the 8k race, as it was the ninth race in a row that Stifel finished at the top for the Buckeyes.
Aaron Wood wasn't far being Stifel, finishing 12th (25:34.7) to give OSU two top-15 finishers.
Rounding out the scores counted for the Buckeyes were Mitch Leitch (36th, 25:59.7,) Jake Mandel (26:05.6) and Kevin Blank (48th, 26:12.6.)
WVB: Buckeyes go 2-1 over the weekend
Concluding their non-conference schedule in the Buckeye Invitational, the women's volleyball team swung it's way to a 2-1 record over the duration of the round robin tournament.
They began the campaign with a straight set loss (25-17, 25-20, 25-16) to an upstart Western Kentucky team.
Earning her first career start, freshman Ayanna Swan was a bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming performance. The outside hitter tallied eight kills in a prelude to what would come against Northern Illinois.
OSU did rebound in the nightcap versus the Huskies on the back of Swan. Winning in four sets (25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-18), Swan almost won an entire set for her team, as she finished with 19 kills. Fellow freshman Hannah Gruensfelder chipped in with 31 digs.
Buckeyes Fly Past Flyers
Ohio State would end their non-conference slate by defeating in-state opponent Dayton 25-22, 25-18, 25-21 on Saturday.
Taylor Hughes was in on 36 assists, many of those which came to Ayanna Swan and Luisa Schirmer.
Swan followed up her debut Friday with another 12 kills while Schirmer produced 11. Both represented OSU volleyball on the all-tournament team.
Ohio State starts Big Ten play against Maryland, Wednesday Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.
field hockey splits
Ohio State field hockey opened up its Big Ten portion this week. It started with a heartbreaking on the road at No.14 Northwestern.
After going ahead 2-1 on two goals by Maddy Humphrey — her eighth multi-goal game of her career — Northwestern came back to tie the game in the 43rd minute.
The Buckeyes and Wildcats played to a draw until the eight minute of overtime, when Northwestern's Eva van Agt ripped one by OSU goaltender Liz Tamburro.
Buckeyes win Battle of Ohio
Rebounding nicely from the heartbreaker at Northwestern, Ohio State returned home to defeat the Ohio University Bobcats in a 3-0 shutout Sunday at Pruitt Field.
They put themselves at the advantage early in this one — Morgan Kile scored three minutes into the game to set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
Maartje Bongers scored her first career goal in the 42nd minute, while Humphrey topped off the afternoon in the 55th minute off a feed from Kile.
The win brings OSU's season record to 4-3.
The week ahead
- Women's Golf: 9/17-9/19: East & West Matchplay Challenge
- Men's Golf: 9/18-9/19: Inverness Invitational at Toledo, OH
- Men's Tennis: 9/18: Columbus Challenger, Columbus, OH
- Women's Tennis: 9/19: Team Luke Tennis Classic 25k, Lubbock Texas; Oracle ITA Masters, Malibu, Calif.
- Women's Volleyball: 9/20 v. Maryland 7 p.m.; 9/23 at Purdue, 8:30 p.m.
- Field Hockey: 9/22 v. Michigan, 3 p.m.; 9/24 v. Michigan St., 1 p.m.
- Softball: 9/22 v. Dayton, 6 p.m., 9/24 v. Wright State DH — all exhibition games
- Men's Soccer: 9/22 v. Bowling Green, 7 p.m.
- Women's Soccer: 9/22 at Nebraska, 8:05 p.m., 9/24
- Rifle: 9/23 at The Citadel, all day.
