The BG women’s soccer team went two for two this weekend against Ohio Friday and Kent State Saturday.
With the victories, the Falcons advanced to 4-11-0 overall and 3-5-0 in Mid-American Conference play. The team’s back-to-back conference wins during the weekend is its first since 2010.
To open the weekend, the Falcons scored a 2-1 victory against the Bobcats. The Falcons overcame rainy conditions and a 1-0 halftime deficit to score two second-half goals from freshmen Madison Schupbach and Leah Runkle.
Sunday, the Falcons were the first ones to get on the board with a Skylar Fleak goal in the 27th minute of the first half to lead the Falcons to a 1-0 win. The Kent State match also served as Senior Day for BG’s three seniors, Ashley Garr, Kylie Briem and Sidney Huth.
Basalyga elected not to start either of the active seniors (Garr remained inactive due to injury) because Kent State was a must-win game.
“To me Senior Day is about honoring the seniors, but we don’t want to deviate away from who we are,” she said. “I mean this is a game that needs to be won, so for me tradition and Senior Day is about finding the moment to honor the seniors, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with minutes played.”
Huth said she was excited to come away with the win on her Senior Day.
“At the end of the day it’s just another game, but to have a win on Senior Day is just the icing,” Huth said. “[This weekend] boosts our
Confidence so much. We’ve been working really hard and it’s the process that we’ve been trying to stick to and it’s paying off now.”
Head coach Lindsay Basalyga said she was really proud to see some of the team’s efforts come together this past weekend.
“For them overall to finally feel the emotion that comes from the work and the process and their commitment, for them to actually feel that, I’m ecstatic for our team,” she said.
Fleak said getting on the board early meant the team had to be that much more focused throughout the remainder of the game.
“It gives us a lot of confidence throughout the game, but we’re not just going to sit back and relax,” Fleak said. “We stayed disciplined. I think that was one of the huge things I think that helped us throughout the rest of the game.”
That ability to remain disciplined also stuck out to Basalyga.
“I think [the early goal] works two ways; I think it’s confidence that we are pushing to score, but that was a long time for us to manage a lead and that’s part of learning how to win,” she said. “I’m really proud that we were able to manage that much of soccer in the second game on the weekend.”
On the other side of the ball, Basalyga was also pleased with the effort of the back line.
“I think the discipline on our decisions when we stepped and what the rest of the back line did was great,” she said. “Lauren Cadel was again phenomenal, she made some game-winning saves, but her communication as well gave some confidence to our back line and that’s something we really haven’t seen from her over the last year and a half.”
The confidence of this team has continued to increase, which has not only had an impact on this year’s team, but provides a promising future for the Falcons.
“Right now we’re pretty confident because our team is pretty young, and I think as we move forward and as we get older, I think we’re going to be so much more confident than we are now,” Fleak said. “Being able to come in as a freshman and play with [this year’s upperclassman], it was just an awesome experience.”
Even though this year’s seniors were just a part of the beginning of the rebuilding process, they are still proud to be a part of it, Huth said.
“In a few years when we’re up there winning MAC championships and stuff, just to be able to say that I was here to turn this program around is really exciting,” she said.
With all of the excitement about the future, the Falcons still must remain focused on its last three MAC games of this season.
“We have three MAC games left and the team knows what’s at steak in terms of the MAC tournament appearance,” Basalyga said. “But we’re sticking to our process and if we end up in the MAC tournament because of our process, that would be great.”
The Falcons will take to the road in their next two matches against Western Michigan and Northern Illinois Oct. 24 and Oct. 26.
