For the women’s soccer team, what lies ahead this weekend is a bit of a mystery.
That’s because the Falcons will play Pittsburgh and Missouri, two teams that coach Andy Richards acknowledges BG knows very little about.
“We have never played either team before,” Richards said. “It’s tough to prepare for a team that you don’t know anything about, but we expect both teams to be competitive.”
Richards has said all along that MAC games are the all-important ones. After this weekend’s games, which will be played at Ohio State, the Falcons will begin a stretch where they will play six straight games against MAC teams. The first of those games will be played a week from Friday at home against Miami.
At one point last season, Bowling Green recorded a 7-3 record by defeating teams mainly outside of the conference. While injuries certainly played a large role in the rest of the season, BG still finished the season below .500 by losing most of its MAC games.
“The emphasis for non-conference games is quite different,” Richards said. “Last year we had wins over Wright State, Youngstown and tied Michigan State, and yet those wins did nothing to help us get to the postseason.”
Despite the importance of the games ahead, Richards is not expecting a let-down this weekend.
“We do a pretty good job of focusing on the next game,” Richards said. “We are not even focusing on Missouri right now, because it’s not our next game.”
Regardless, Richards has called the upcoming MAC games the most crucial games of the season.
BG already has an advantage over the rest of the MAC, because the game against Toledo was the first MAC game. By beating the Rockets last Friday, BG is the only team to have a 1-0 MAC record (2-1-1 overall).
“We got off to a good start in-conference by winning the first game,” Richards said. “The next step is to win the second, third and so on, but you still have to take one game at a time.”
On the injury front, Richards said Samantha Meister will not play this weekend and will likely be out for a few weeks after suffering a broken nose. Richards said there are no other major injuries.
The game against Pittsburgh will begin at today at 5 p.m. in Columbus. The second game against Missouri will begin Sunday at 11 a.m.
