By Colleen Kane
Enquirer staff writer

The Miami hockey team hit a bump in what had been a smooth start to its follow-up to last season's CCHA Super Six and NCAA Tournament appearances.

The RedHawks, ranked sixth, seventh and eighth in the three national polls, dropped two games to unranked Ohio State, 9-3 Thursday in Columbus and 2-1 Friday in Oxford. They were their first losses after four wins this season.

The two teams split their series last season 3-3, but the Buckeyes won the two most important games, keeping the RedHawks from capturing the CCHA regular-season title with a 5-4 win in the season finale and eliminating the RedHawks from the CCHA Tournament with a 4-3 overtime win in the semifinals at Joe Louis Arena.

Offense was a primary concern entering this season, after Miami lost its top three scorers to graduation. But scoring hadn't been a problem - before Thursday and Friday against Ohio State.

Miami had outscored its opponents 20-5 in winning its first four games of the season.

"We knew we had guys that hadn't played in this situation, without those three (seniors). Now it's their time," Miami coach Enrico Blasi said before the OSU series. "They can either step up or not, and they've stepped up."

Led by a combined 21 points from sophomore forwards Marty Guerin and Matt Christie, Miami started off with two wins in the Lefty McFadden Invitational, over Boston University and Northeastern, which already had beaten then-top-ranked Michigan in the Lefty. MU followed it with a two-game sweep of Notre Dame.

Sophomore Brandon Crawford-West, who did not play in Thursday's loss at OSU, was named CCHA goaltender of the week twice for those four victories.

Guerin was named InsideCollegeHockey.com's national player of the week and Christie was named CCHA offensive player of the Week last week after 5-0 and 4-2 wins over Notre Dame. Junior forward Chris Michael has chipped in six points. Junior defenseman Andy Greene, team captain and preseason All-American, also has six points.

"Andy's one of those guys that comes to play every night," Blasi said. "As a defenseman, he's an offensive threat out there, and on defense he's very good. He's definitely the guy that everybody looks to lead the way."

That leadership will be tested in the next two weekends, when Miami will try to rebound in road series at St. Lawrence and Michigan.

It's a long way until the RedHawks reach tournament time, but Greene said the solid start should help his team keep driving ahead to its goal - a conference championship and another national tournament appearance.

"We played two pretty big teams and got two big victories, so now we just have to keep this momentum going," Greene said. "It gives the team confidence knowing that we can play against other teams in Division I hockey. It was a confidence booster."

Others

• The Cincinnati State men's soccer team will play its final regular-season game at noon today at the Harrison Soccer Complex with the hope of capping off the first undefeated season in school history. The team is the only remaining undefeated junior-college team in the country, at 15-0-0. The sixth-ranked Surge clinched first place in the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference and earned the No. 1 seed in the region for next weekend's national tournament.

The team also scrimmaged the Cincinnati Excite, a professional indoor soccer team, on Wednesday and came away with a 5-5 tie.

"That's what we were looking for, a really tough game before the tournament," coach Mike Combs said. "We left there feeling pretty good. I think we might have ruffled some feathers over there."

• Tennessee Tech outside hitter Liz Engel, a Mount Notre Dame grad, earned Ohio Valley Conference defensive player of the week this week after averaging 6.43 digs a game.

• The Cincinnati men's soccer team knocked off two ranked opponents in one week, defeating No. 13 USF 1-0 on Oct. 16 and No. 21 Saint Louis 1-0 on Oct. 20.