After going 2-1-1 in its last four games, the BG women’s soccer team looked to end its season with a positive result on Thursday afternoon at Cochrane Field.
The Falcons, however, fell to the Eastern Michigan Eagles 3-0 in their last Mid-American Conference game of the year.
“I think we came out flat in the first half and made some defensive errors that typically we don’t make,” said head coach Lindsay Basalyga. “I think that comes from being on our heels a little bit and then obviously we are going into halftime trying to find a way to dig us out of a 2-0 hole.”
The Eagles came into this game looking to stay in first place in the MAC West and took the lead after just 10 minutes of play when Chelsie Oddan took a shot from the middle of a crowded box making it 1-0 for Eastern Michigan.
BG freshman Skylar Fleak scored a goal midway through the first half which would have made it 1-1, yet the goal was called off due to offsides.
In minute 36, Eagles player Angela Vultaggio scored the second goal for Eastern Michigan with a shot from the right side of box that went past Lauren Cadel into the back of the net.
The Eagles took the 2-0 lead into halftime. EMU scored its third goal at minute 57 when Megan Trapp took a shot after receiving the ball off a deflection from a defender making it 3-0 for the Eagles.
Basalyga said her team was competing well and played a good brand of soccer against the Eagles.
EMU outshot the Falcons 19-15 in the game, but the Falcons took 11 of the 15 shots in the second half trying to find a way back into the game.
Despite conceding three goals, Falcons goalkeeper Lauren Cadel made seven saves in goal for the Falcons.
“I think we are defending really well and Lauren [Cadel] was huge for us this year in the back of the net and I think [she] kept a lot of games tighter then they may have been,” Basalyga said. “But for a young team, we are playing six, seven freshmen at a time; I think our defensive discipline was really good and the ideas that we are seeing translate from training into games I think is at a better place now than it was at the beginning of the year as well.”
The Falcons end their 2014 campaign with a 4-13-1 overall record and a 3-7-1 record in the MAC while EMU finished 11-6-1 overall and 7-4-0 in MAC play.
BG will not make an appearance in the MAC tournament this year yet the team has improved on its performance in past seasons.
