Coach Dani Gunderson’s Lady Muskies came off of a tough week on the road with losses to Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan and were looking to makeup ground on their schedule with the game against Bluffton.
The Beavers took to the offensive right away with a shot on the Muskies goal that was saved by goalie Kelly Buck just 56 seconds into the game.
A couple of minutes later Muskingum’s Morgan Meisel took a shot at the goal but it was blocked. Kelly Buck grabbed another save almost four minutes into the match when Bluffton’s Alyssa Kester shot on her goal.
Meisel tried a repeat shot that was saved by the Bluffton goalie Brielle Collier. Kester took a successful shot just over seven minutes into the first half giving the Beavers a 1 – 0 lead over the Muskies.
Nina McGinn of Bluffton took a shot on Muskingum’s goal at 9:53 into the first that was blocked, which lead to a corner kick by Bluffton’s Brittney Ramirez to teammate Katelyn Burden for a header into the goal but the shot was wide.
Half way through the first period Morgan Meisel took a shot on Bluffton’s goal that was saved by goalie Brielle Collier. Shortly after came a string of four corner kicks and a shot by Muskingum’s Hannah Ritchie but the shot hit the post and deflected. She came back with another shot that was saved by Collier.
Despite their best efforts the Muskies went into intermission down 1 – 0.
After the half the Muskies found a new drive as they pushed their opponents, keeping pressure applied as they took shot after shot on the goal. With twenty minutes left on the clock Muskingum’s Morgan Meisel landed a shot in the net tying up the game. Just after the goal, Bluffton fouled Meisel giving her the opportunity at a Penalty kick that she capitalized on to take the lead away from the Beavers and put the Muskies up for the first time in the contest 2 – 1.
Bluffton was not about to back down as they turned up the intensity and the roughness as they picked up a string of four yellow cards over the next fifteen minutes. With just five minutes left in the game Muskingum’s Hannah Ritchie found the goal to grab the last score for the game and lock in the victory at 3 – 1.
Muskingum has another home game on Saturday, September 23rd, at 1pm in New Concord.