The BG women’s soccer team has a pair of Mid-American Conference road matches this weekend.
The Falcons travel to the University of Buffalo Friday, Oct. 18 and to the University of Akron on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Head coach Lindsay Basalyga said a weekend of traveling does not affect her team much because by now they have developed their own routine on the road. She added that road matches provide a more family-like atmosphere that brings the team together more so than home matches.
Buffalo has an overall record of 4-7-2 and a MAC record of 1-5-0, including a home record of 2-5-2. The Falcons are 3-1-1 on the road at Buffalo. The Bulls sit just one spot ahead of the Falcons in the bottom of the MAC East division standings. BG leads Buffalo 11-5-1 in the all-time series between the two teams. The Bulls won last year’s meeting at Cochrane Field in a 2-1 come-from-behind win, breaking a four-match winning streak for the Falcons. Buffalo returned 13 players who appeared in 10 or more games a year ago, when the Bulls finished 5-12-2 overall and 3-7-1 in the MAC.
Junior midfielder Ashley Garr said she is looking forward to being on the road, hoping that her team will respond well to a new atmosphere.
“Every year Buffalo is a really hard team so it should be a very tough match, but hopefully we come out to play,” Garr said. “It will be a tough game, but hopefully we’ll get a result.”
Akron sits at an overall record of 4-7-3 and MAC record of 1-4-1 going into Friday’s match versus Central Michigan before facing the Falcons. The Zips currently are 1-3-1 at home while the Falcons are 3-2-0 at Akron. The Falcons lead the Zips in the series 7-4-1, but Akron has a four-match winning streak against BG. The Zips took home a 2-0 win over the Falcons at Cochrane Field this past season. Akron returned 22 letterwinners, including nine starters, from a 2012 team that went 6-11-1 overall and 2-8-1 in conference play.
Sophomore forward Emma Norris said the key to Sunday’s match for the Falcons is sticking to what they do best and exploiting Akron’s weaknesses.
“Akron’s going to be a good team and it’ll be a tough game, but if we play our game we’ll be able to stick with them,” Norris said.
Basalyga said her team still has plenty to celebrate this season and that the Falcons still have the opportunity to finish in a better position this season than the last.
“That’s what we’ve talked about with this team; is how are you going to leave your mark on this program,” Basalyga said. “To leave it in a better position than you found it. I still think we have a lot of opportunity this weekend to put our thumbprint on the program and on the season. It’s just a matter of our discipline, our mentality and what we’re willing to do in the final thirds of the field to put us in a position to have success.”
Friday’s match at Buffalo kicks off at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday’s game at Akron will begin at 12 p.m. Both matches are scheduled to have live stats and live video streaming. The links to follow each match will be available at BGSUFalcons.com.
