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Playing well will be the No. 1 goal for the BGSU women’s soccer team this weekend. Friday, the Falcons will travel to East Lansing, Mich. to face Big Ten power Michigan State before returning home to host Eastern Illinois at noon Sunday.
The Falcons are coming off two big road wins, which improved their overall record to 2-2-0. While last weekend’s wins boosted the squad’s confidence, it will take more than a confident attitude to repeat last weekend’s success.
‘Confidence is high at the moment and we’d like to keep it like that,’ coach Andy Richards said. ‘We’d like to be able to get two wins out of [this weekend], but more importantly, we want to be able to play well.’
MSU will be no easy match for the Falcons. The Spartans have a 1-1-1 record after beating sixth-ranked Texas A’amp;M in overtime, 1-0, on Friday. The Spartans defense has shut out their opponents in each of their last two matches. Anchoring that staunch defense is keeper Nicole Galas, who was named the Big Ten defensive player of the week after her performance in last weekend’s matches.
Sunday’s match will be no picnic either, as the Falcons have never beaten Eastern Illinois. The Panthers are 1-3-0 after losing three straight. Eastern’s offense is led by Sharyne Connell, who scored her 20th career goal in a 3-1 loss to Loyola on Sunday.
As the Falcons prepare for this weekend’s matches, staying injury free will be a concern. The squad will be without co-captain defender Natalie Sampiller this weekend. Sampiller will be out for several weeks recovering from an ankle injury.
‘We’ve got to make sure we keep kids as healthy as we can,’ Richards said.
