It was a tough opening weekend of conference play for the women’s soccer team, as they dropped their first two matches in MAC play of the season. After losing to Miami University on Friday night at Cochrane stadium by a score of 2-1, the Falcons lost again at home to Ball State 1-0 on Sunday afternoon. They are now 4-4-1 on the season.
“I think I’m just disappointed in our mentality throughout the 90-minute match. I think we had some highs,” head coach Lindsay Basalyga said. “We didn’t necessarily have lows with mentality, but I thought we hit a point in the game where we lacked belief that we could grind our way out of a one-goal deficit. “
Redshirt junior and co-captain Lauren Cadel and the Falcon’s defense was tested early and often on Sunday, facing fourteen first half shots from the Ball State offense. The Cardinals controlled the ball by pressuring BG and playing stifling defense, not allowing a single shot by the Falcons in the opening period. The game would end with a 24-7 Cardinals advantage in the shot column.
Cadel faced shots during the 7th and 12th minute as the Cardinals attacked the Falcons, which Cadel saved for her first two of the game. A shot by Cardinal’s player Chay McNitt almost put Ball State in front during the 31st minute, but the ball sailed out of bounds over the crossbar and a leaping Cadel extended hand.
Recording three more saves during the rest of the half, Cadel was able to keep the score even at 0-0 as the two teams went into halftime.
While they struggled to attack the goal in the first half, the Falcons came out with noticeably more energy in the second half. Alexa Cheripko and Paige Amodio both took shots on goal at the 46th and 47th minute, but Cardinals goalkeeper Alyssa Heintschel saved both. Erica Hubert’s shot was blocked at the 52nd mark, and her follow up attempt missed high.
“We had a lot more energy in the second half, but it’s just a matter of putting together 90 minutes,” Cadel said. “I think just knowing we had to go at them. It was zero to zero at halftime, so just knowing that we had to bring the energy and we had to lift it, that’s what contributed to that.”
Despite the increased energy from the Falcons, the Cardinals continued to attack aggressively on offense. After a missed corner kick attempt at the 62nd minute, Ball State was awarded another corner kick at the 63rd minute.
The Cardinals’ Lauren Hall kicked a well-placed corner kick to the front of the net and Lorina White headed the ball into the left side of the goal for the match’s first and only goal.
The final chance the Falcons had to even the game came at the 76th minute, but Heintschel saved Erica Hubert’s shot on goal. Madison Shupbach and Hubert both took shots at the 80th and 83rd minutes respectively, but both attempts sailed wide of the net.
Despite opening up MAC play with two losses, the young Falcons team only lost by one in each game. That is progress for a program that has finished in the bottom three of the conference the past two years.
“We’re walking out of two games against two good teams that are traditionally at the top of the conference. The MAC can be funny and you never know what’s going to happen in any given year,” Basalyga said. “They definitely made us better. And we only lost by one goal, it’s not like we got blown out of either game. For us, it’s really just a belief system that we are good enough, we have the ideas, and we have the players to have success in a 90-minute game.”
With two more home games on the schedule for this weekend, the Falcons will look to put these past two losses behind them and to improve their conference record.
“I think we just need to take advantage of our next opportunities,” sophomore Rachel Winters said. “We can’t get this weekend back, we just need to learn from it and come out strong next week in practice, work for each other, and get some points next weekend.”
BG will be in action Friday against the Akron Zips at 7 p.m., and will then go up against the Buffalo Bison on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches will take place at Cochrane Stadium.
