After splitting a pair of conference matches last weekend, the BG women’s soccer team looks to win two more on their home field this weekend. The squad sits at tenth place in the Mid-American Conference and will face seventh place Northern Illinois on Friday and fifth place Western Michigan on Sunday.
With the post-season conference tournament only a few weeks away, a pair of wins is vital to the Falcon squad. Despite a rough start, the team came back from winning just one match during the first half of the season to win four of their last six matches. Keeping that momentum going will be critical this weekend.
“We have put ourselves in a position where we really need to win every remaining MAC match,” head coach Andy Richards said. “At this point, we have three remaining conference games. If we win all three, we will definitely be in the [post-season] tournament.”
If the squad loses any of their remaining games, they will be forced to rely on other teams to lose, Richards said.
Northern Illinois will not hand over a win without a fight. The Huskies are 6-4-5 overall and 3-1-5 in the conference. The Huskies, who are coming off of a victory over MAC opponent Akron last weekend, have not lost a conference match in their last four games.
Western Michigan will also provide the Falcons with quality conference competition. The Broncos are 10-4-2 overall and 5-3-2 in the MAC after victories over Akron and Youngstown State last weekend.
The Falcons have been improving steadily over the second half of the season, but neither the players nor the coaching staff will settle for mere improvement.
“We recognize that the job is not complete yet. We will not be satisfied until we get into the post-season tournament,” Richards said. “Our destiny is in our own hands. We can control whether we go post-season or not.”
The Falcons will kickoff against NIU at 4 p.m. this afternoon at Cochrane Field. Sunday’s match against Western Michigan, also at home, will begin at 1 p.m.
