BGSU women’s soccer (8-2-5, 3-1-5) suffered its first Mid-American Conference (MAC) loss of the season, and its first defeat in 63 days, losing 1-0 to the Ball State Cardinals (9-5-2, 6-3-1).
The difference in the match came in the 35th minute, after a slip by returning defender Taylor Green due to the wet surface caused by the rain hours leading up to the game and during, which was capitalized on by MAC’s leading goal-scorer, Addie Chester, who slotted the ball into the back of the net.
However, head coach Chris Fox was more than pleased with his team’s performance, despite losing the match.
“I think our performance was fantastic. Outside of a poor surface and a poor field…maybe it’s tight, right? But I felt like we did enough to win the game today,” said Fox post-game. “I think we created quality chances…and I think that’s the difficulty with our sport, right? You could have the performance like NIU, where we won on Thursday night. I thought we were okay, but we came away with a win. It’s a difficult one to take; it’s hurting for sure.”
At kick-off, the temperature was in the mid-50s with light showers, with rain throughout Saturday night leading into Sunday.
While Fox says it didn’t affect the quality of the performance, offensively, the Falcons struggled to create clear-cut quality chances that tested Cardinal goalkeeper Kate Pallante.
“You think about that, goal. It’s because of a slip, right? It’s a free shot goal,” said Fox. “I think if you look at how they defended, they defended with a lot of bodies behind the ball. So then it was a lot of half chances… a few quality chances, but a testament to them in terms of putting bodies on the line, getting numbers in the box.”
Despite Bowling Green’s 13-match record-breaking program coming to an end, the Falcons will head to Buffalo this Thursday, Oct. 23, to take on the second-place Bulls.
With the MAC tournament on the horizon, Fox knows nobody will want to play his Falcon squad.
“I think once you’re in the tournament, like I don’t think anyone’s going to want to play us, especially in a quarterfinal matchup.”
