ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Feisty and fearless. Those words encapsulated Ball State field hockey head coach Caitlin Walsh’s view of the Cardinals’ weekend in Michigan. In particular, those adjectives summed up the effort of Ball State’s 22 players against the University of Michigan Sunday. 

The Cardinals lost 4-0 to the No. 5-ranked Wolverines, but when Ball State entered its locker room at halftime only trailing 1-0, screams of joy could be heard from the other side of closed doors. Michigan had beaten three other Mid-American Conference (MAC) teams prior to Sunday by a combined score of 20-2, and the Wolverines averaged 4.4 points per match in 10 contests leading up to Ball State. 

With those numbers in mind, the Cardinals’ four-point loss was a moral victory for Walsh. 

“From start to finish, we were always around them, annoying them and trying to be a presence,” Walsh said. “Yes, it didn't fall in our favor in terms of a win, but they came out ready to play, and I thought they never backed down.” 

After the final whistle blew, Walsh shook hands with Michigan’s head coach Marcia Pankratz. The two shared a brief conversation, in which Pankratz gave the Cardinals their flowers for leaving Ann Arbor with the second-lowest margin of defeat the Wolverines have given any MAC program this season. 

That’s why Ball State’s roster and staff were all smiles after 60 minutes of play. 

“We wanted people to know that this is Ball State,” Walsh said. “ … That's a testament to the team. We get up for games like this, we're the underdog, and so they want that pressure and they want that freedom to see what happens.” 

Graduate student goalkeeper Hannah Johnston may have played the best match of her life Sunday, posting a career-high 22 saves on 85 percent of Michigan’s shots on goal. Before the season even began, Walsh confidently boasted that Johnston was the best goalkeeper in the MAC. 

That fact is hard to argue after Johnston’s performance in Ann Arbor. 

“She wants to be challenged,” Walsh said. “She wants shots thrown at her, and she wants to be able to make that save, so she doesn't back down from it. She wants to put that pressure on herself.” 

Walsh was right, because Johnston was buzzing less than 15 minutes after the match’s conclusion. 

“We felt so much more in control and focused on ourselves,” Johnston said. “ … We want it so bad, and we want to fight, and we're just able to reach a team level of intensity where we know that we have everything to gain, and they have everything to lose.” 

In Friday’s 3-1 victory against Central Michigan, Johnston also saved five of the Chippewas’ six shots on goal. Through the first 11 matches of the 2024 campaign, Johnston has 108 saves with a 79 percent success rate. 

She is well on pace for a career-high in both marks, and now Johnston feels even more confident with 2023 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Michaela Graney back on the pitch to further boost the Cardinals’ defense. Graney missed the first eight matches of the season with a broken right pinky finger, but Ball State is 2-1 in the three games played since her return. 

Not only is Graney among the MAC’s best defensive players, she’s one of Johnston’s closest friends as a fellow fifth-year. 

“It’s just naturally flowing,” Johnston said. “She’s where I need her to be, because she just knows. She's played this game for so long, and she's just played so well.” 

Michigan earned 43 shots against the Cardinals, so Ball State’s offense didn't have the chance to get anything moving on the offensive end. However, junior midfielder Emma van Hal said that was partly by design. 

Van Hal and the rest of the Cardinals’ offense found it hard to make any moves to get past the Wolverines’ defense, so she said Ball State’s best chance at scraping out of Ann Arbor with a victory was to send more than half of the 11 Cardinals to the defensive end. 

“Playing these teams, you need to work together, you need to hype each other up, you have to keep believing in your teammates,” van Hal said. 

That strategy helped Ball State’s defense in the first half, but it also resulted in the Cardinals earning 0 shots after the first 30 minutes of play. The second half went far more in Michigan’s favor, especially when the Wolverines scored two goals in the fourth period. 

On the other hand, Ball State’s only shot on goal came in the second half when junior forward Christine Ditizio missed wide left. Despite a down day for the Cardinal offense, van Hal wasn’t particularly worried moving forward. 

She recognized the unique circumstance Sunday’s match against the fifth-ranked team in all of Division I field hockey presented. 

“We came into this game with the energy of: We don't have anything to lose,” van Hal said. “In the end, it’s like, ‘Who wants it more?’” 

The Wolverines have now won 10 matches in a row after losing the first match of the season, compiling a 3-0 Big Ten record in the process. Their only defeat was to No. 1 North Carolina. 

Ball State’s weekend in Michigan started with the same energy the Cardinals felt Sunday, except the result fell more in the red and white’s favor. Friday in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, Ball State defeated Central Michigan (3-10, 0-5 MAC) 3-1. 

The conference battle was notable for the Cardinals in three ways, given that it was Graney’s first start of the season, it was the second-straight MAC win for Ball State and van Hal’s two-goal performance moved her into a tie for the most scores in the conference this season with seven. 

Not only does van Hal lead the MAC in goals, but she is five scores ahead of Ball State’s next-highest contributor. The Netherlands native was quick to say that her offensive production would not be possible without clutch passing from her teammates, but van Hal does realize that she has become the Cardinals’ go-to scorer. 

Prior to the 2024 season, van Hal had never scored a collegiate goal. 

“I definitely was not very confident in my role, and it was scary,” van Hal said. “[It’s about] knowing that I can do it, and believing in myself with positive self-talk and being like, ‘Okay, I'm good at this. This is gonna go in.’”

After its two games in Michigan this weekend, Ball State is now 3-8 with a 2-2 MAC record. Within the past nine days, the Cardinals have started to turn their season around after starting 1-7, winning two of their last three matches. 

Whether it stemmed from team bonding opportunities like viewing the Northern Lights, a group outing to a Michigan pumpkin patch or anything in between, Johnston said this weekend should serve as a springboard for the Cardinals moving forward. If anything else, it proved that Ball State’s chemistry has never wavered. 

“Take away the field hockey completely and I still think we would all be such a good unit, such a good group of friends,” Johnston said. “That makes us stronger out here on this field.” 

The Cardinals are back in action Friday, Oct. 18 when they travel to face Appalachian State (7-6, 4-1 MAC) in a 6 p.m. match. 

Contact Kyle Smedley via email at kmsmedley213@gmail.com or via X @KyleSmedley_.

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