Hoosiers Fall to No. 6 Penn State in Regular Season Finale

Sunday, October 22

Bloomington, IN

12 PM

Indiana University

(6-12, 0-8)

Penn State

(14-3, 6-2)

Penn State

Indiana

Hoosiers Fall to No. 6 Penn State in Regular Season Finale

10/22/2017 5:07:00 PM | Field Hockey

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Indiana’s senior class honored in final career home game

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Hoosiers' field hockey team fell in Big Ten action to No. 6 Penn State, 7-1, in their final game of the 2017 regular season. The Nittany Lions (14-3, 6-2) gained a quick spark from leading scorer Moira Putsch, who netted a hat trick including Penn State's first two goals of the game against the Hoosiers (6-12, 0-8).

Kelsey Giese scored the Hoosiers' goal in the 62^nd minute, capping an excellent personal season-ending run with 8 points (3g, 2a) in her last 7 appearances. Giese also led Indiana's shot chart with 8 attempts in the game, 3 of which landed on target. The group also helped Indiana draw eight attack penalty corners, their highest total since earning 16 at Saint Louis (10/1/17).

Katie Johnson stopped 12 shots in a nearly-full shift, matching her all-time high against Michigan (10/13) last weekend. Freshman Sachi Ananias also entered the game for her fourth career appearance, just missing the save on a Penn State penalty stroke.

The contest was sure to leave a bittersweet taste regardless of the on-field result, as Indiana's senior class played the last home game of their collegiate careers. Cameron Gibson, Elle Hempt, Katie Johnson, Maddie Latino, Taylor Pearson, and Abby Urbanek received recognition prior to the start of the game for the relentless effort given by the class over their careers at Indiana University.

Those seniors that were able to play in the contest left it all on the turf. Latino persisted the fight on the forward line and attempted six shots, one of which nearly redirected into goal. Gibson tallied two shots as a forward, her single-game career high, while Urbanek pulled back from the forward group to share the load in midfield. Johnson's career day brought her single-season total to 107 stops (t-4^th IU history). And Hempt, although out for the year after a season-ending injury at Rutgers (9/22), earned an honorary spot in the Hoosiers' starting lineup and took the field for the opening seconds of the game.

The Big Ten field hockey postseason begins next weekend in its new format, spread out over two weekends. The first weekend will take place on the campuses of the conference's top four seeds, with the survivors advancing to a final four weekend in East Lansing, Michigan on Michigan State's Ralph Young Field.

The Hoosiers will play in the Big Ten's first-ever 8/9 game on Friday, October 27 at Michigan's Ocker Field in Ann Arbor. Indiana's opponent for the match remains to be determined, but the winner of that game advances to face the top-seeded Wolverines on Sunday, October 29.

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