Last Saturday the field hockey team beat its highest-ranked opponent -- No. 9 Louisville -- since 1997. This Saturday, the Cardinals have a chance to up that statistic.
Ball State has two MAC games at home this weekend. The first is against Ohio University Friday. Saturday, the team faces No. 7 Kent State.
If the Cardinals beat Kent State, it will be their second victory over a top-ten team in eight days. That should be good enough to rank them in the top 20, something head coach Jen Halliday said she doesn't think much about.
"It doesn't matter if we're ranked or not," Halliday said. "We need to win the MAC championship because an at-large bid (into the NCAA tournament) is hard to get."
If the Cardinals are ranked next week, it will be the first time since 1999. That season, Ball State finished tied for first in the MAC.
Before the team can beat Kent State, however, it must first play Ohio, a team that is better than its 4-6 record, Halliday said.
"OU played Kent tough, they played Louisville tough, and they beat Princeton," Halliday said. "They're record is deceiving. They're very good."
Halliday said that the Cardinals can't afford to overlook any teams, no matter of the record.
"The MAC is just too tough to do so," she said.
An example, Halliday pointed out, was the game against Miami of Ohio last Friday. The Redhawks came into the game 1-7 and 0-2 in the MAC, scoring just two goals in their last four games. Despite the poor numbers, Ball State barely escaped Miami with a 1-0 win.
"In the MAC, everyone wants to knock off everyone else," Halliday said. "I respect OU as much as I respect Kent as much as I respect Miami. Hopefully I've engrained that into my players' heads."
Halliday said both games this weekend will be physical, but the team has no problem with that. The Cardinals have played and beaten physical teams such as Indiana and Northwestern.
To beat Kent State, Halliday said, the team has to play together as they did in its victory against Louisville.
"If we play as a team like we did in both games last weekend, good outcomes will come," Halliday said.
"It's going to be a war zone on the field both days. There'll be elbows and bodies flying all over the place."
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