[media-credit id=2228 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Penalty corners were the difference on Sunday for the Quinnipiac field hockey team, as it was defeated 2-0 by Michigan State.

Each team had seven penalty corner opportunities, but while the Spartans (2-2) capitalized on two, the Bobcats (2-2) simply could not find a way to get a score.

“It was a game of corners,” Quinnipiac head coach Becca Main said. “We lost because of their two nice corners and we also lost because we couldn’t put four in, which really should have gone in. Speciality situations really failed for us today.”

In the first half, it was a defensive battle between the two teams. Hannah Teicher, Quinnipiac’s senior goaltender, registered four saves in the half to keep the game scoreless. But the Spartan’s defense held Quinnipiac to zero shots on net.

“There was obviously a ten minute slow start there in the beginning where we kind of sat back and we weren’t sure who we were playing and then realized we were playing Big Ten hockey,” Main said. “From the timeout on, we really regrouped, found our game plan and did a nice job.”

It was the Spartans who came out of the halftime with a game plan and certainly executed it. After going 0-for-4 on penalty corners in the first half, Michigan State struck on its first two of the second half.

It was freshman forward Aisha Osinga scoring her first collegiate goal, then it was senior back Amanda Robinson notching her first of the season to get the Spartans the two-goal lead. Freshman forward Isa van der Weij collected the assist on both goals.

“[Michigan State] put in that first corner with a gorgeous tip,” Main said. “That’s what you practice for. It was a really nicely executed one. The second one, we kind of failed a little bit on what we were supposed to be doing on the set.”

The Bobcats found themselves down 2-0 just eight minutes into the second half and never were able to battle back. A couple of good looks off of corners were all they were able to muster, but they couldn’t crack freshman goalie Jade Arundell (three saves) and the stingy Spartan defense.

Main made it obvious that the focus in practice in the next few days would be on speciality situations.

“You can guess what we’re going to be spending the next four days on,” Main said. “We want to make sure that we don’t get into a situation where you’re at a game fully engaged, fully dominating at the end there and not able to finish.”

Despite the loss, Main was pleased with how her team performed together and made the necessary adjustments that they needed.

“Something that this team does that I’m really pleased with is you don’t see start to see individuality,” Main said. “You start to see a team trying to find cohesiveness. We do a good job looking for each other when we’re trying to get out of something…For us, it’s looking to see who’s on our left and who’s on our right, having our heads on a swivel. That just made a huge difference for us in the second half.”

With its record now even at 2-2, Quinnipiac will have its eyes set on next Saturday, Sept. 8, when the Maine Black Bears (3-0) come into Hamden for a matchup at 12 p.m.