The BG women’s soccer team continues their homestand at Cochrane Field this weekend with a pair of Mid-American Conference matches. The Falcons will take on Northern Illinois Friday, Oct. 11 and Toledo Sunday, Oct. 13.
Bowling Green sits at an overall record of 0-10-0 and a MAC record of 0-4-0 going into the weekend.
BG Head Coach Lindsay Basalyga said coming off of a 0-5 loss to Western Michigan does not change her approach to preparation for the upcoming matches.
“We’re going to continue to prepare the way we’ve been preparing,” Basalyga said. “I think when you look at a result like that, a 0-5 result, there’s a lot of different factors playing into that. We’re just going to stick to our process and [decide] what do we need to do to be a little bit better than the game before, but not necessarily hang everything on an 0-5 result.”
The Huskies of Northern Illinois come to Cochrane Field Friday with a 4-7-1 overall and 2-2-0 in the MAC. NIU is also 0-6-0 on the road. The Huskies average 1.33 goals scored per game and 9.6 shots per game, both which are higher than the averages for the Falcons. NIU returned 23 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year.
True freshman Taylor Bucaro, who scored her first collegiate goal against Eastern Michigan last Friday, believes their match against the Huskies provides an opportunity for the Falcons to get their first win.
“We are very confident that this can be our first win,” Bucaro said. “They haven’t won on the road yet and we do get pumped up for home games, especially our Friday games.”
Toledo enters with an overall record of 4-8-0 and a conference record of 1-3-0. The Rockets will play at Central Michigan Friday before coming to BG on Sunday. UT also leads the Falcons in average goals scored per game with 1.58 and shots per game with an average of 9.6.
Senior Ivi Casagrande said the Toledo match gives her team added excitement this week going into practice, given the Toledo and BG rivalry.
“I think we have a really good opportunity to beat Toledo at home. They’re always really good … and the game is always a really hard game, but it’s Toledo, it’s our rival,” Casagrande said. “We love playing Toledo. We love the competitive aspect of the game.”
Friday’s match against NIU is set to kick off at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s game against Toledo begins at 1 p.m. Both will be played at Cochrane Field.
