The women's soccer team will play its final regular season home game this afternoon against Marshall University at 3 p.m. A Ball State victory would clinch a second-place finish for the Cardinals, who are currently 8-3 in the conference and 12-4 overall.
On Sunday Ball State will travel to West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers for the first time ever. Purdue is currently ranked as the No. 13 team in the nation and is in the midst of its best season ever.
Marshall, along with five other teams, is in a battle for the last playoff spot in the Mid-American Conference. Ball State has never beaten Marshall, but the Cardinals were able to draw a scoreless tie against the Thundering Herd last season.
The match will also mark the final regular season home game for Ball State's first class of graduating seniors, including Eileen Weinheimer and Ehren Reagor, who have started all 74 games in the university's soccer history. Reagor is Ball State's all-time assist leader, with 17. Weinheimer owns the record for goals, with 19, and points, with 47.
"Our main focus this weekend is going to be Marshall," head coach Ron Rainey said. "But I think it's going to be a great weekend to get us in the competitive state we need to be in going into the MAC tournament."
As of now, the Cardinals could possibly play one of as many as six teams in the first round, as those teams all have a record within one game of each other. Some squads still three league games remaining.
"Marshall is a good, solid team and they've played us well in the past," Rainey said. "They're a creative team once they get into the attacking third, and that is fluctuated by hard work. They have some very talented kids who are tough, physical players."
A win against either of these teams will set a Ball State record for overall wins in a season, which was set last year at 12.
"Whoever we play in the first round of the tournament will come in here and be a difficult opponent," Rainey said. "It'll be very interesting this weekend to see how the conference shakes out."4420O-¦+â-ïsoccerpreview 10.25.02DNEditorial442SORT+â-ä2AUDT
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