The BG women’s soccer team is looking for their first victory this season against the University of Evansville on the road on Friday at 7 p.m.
Despite losing the first two games, head coach Lindsay Basalyga said it is important for the team to not just focus on the end result, but to focus on the process of rebuilding and to work on creating a winning culture.
“To me it’s a choice. You can choose how you look at any situation and we are just trying everyday, every moment to make the choice to stay as positive as possible,” Basalyga said.
Senior Ashley Garr said the team is not scared to continue losing and the team has the confidence that success is going to come in the future.
“This year we are much better offensively and we have been getting many chances on goal,” Garr said. “Even against a top ranked team like Michigan we had good attacks and I feel like if we can break them, we can break any team.”
Evansville currently has a record of 1-1-0 while the Falcons are 0-2-0. Last year, Evansville beat the Falcons 2-1 in overtime at Cochrane Stadium.
Basalyga said the key to being successful in Evansville will be to stay focused from the first whistle to the last and not to waste any minutes during the 90 minutes of soccer.
“We pulled away moments from these two games [Morehead State, Michigan] where we can be a little bit sharper on the defensive side and the attacking side,” she said. “Now it’s just can we impact the moments and make plays that keep us in the game or win us a game.”
Falcon goalkeeper Lauren Cadel said competing for 90 minutes and putting in a solid effort for the full game will lead to the Falcons being successful again.
She also praised the positive impact the 13 incoming players had on and off the field for the Falcons.
“I think everyone is working extremely hard and the work ethic is at a completely different place than it was last year which is great to see,” she said.
A personal motivation for Cadel this year has been her ranking as 16th among Mid-American Conference players in a pre-season poll done by topdrawersoccer.com.
“I always want to push to be better and do better,” she said. “Just seeing this ranking gives me confidence to raise the bar this year.”
Basalyga emphasized that although the team is currently in a rebuilding process, the common goal is to start winning games, preferably this Friday against the Purple Aces.
“Results are going to come and we just have to be patient and things are going to start clicking,” she said.