For the Ball State women's basketball team, which ended its regular season on a six-game losing streak, the Mid-American Conference Tournament is a chance to start all over. A No. 9 seed, the Cards (12-15 overall; 7-9 MAC) will face the No. 8 seed Northern Illinois Huskies (12-15; 7-9) on the road, after the Huskies defeated them 82-62 only four days ago in DeKalb.
"There's not very many times in life that you get a second chance, and this is a second chance for us to do something special in March," head coach Tracy Roller said. "It's to the point of the season right now where March is all about getting it done; everybody's at 0-0, everybody's got new life."
With that new life, Roller said her team should not have another game as bad as the one against Northern.
"(After) watching the effort from film (of the Northern game), I think everybody realizes this is actually a pretty good draw for us," Roller said. "We didn't play hard, we didn't execute, we really didn't do much of anything right at Northern, and I think that's a good sign for us."
While the team did get outplayed against Northern, its three games prior to that, while losses, were games that Roller felt her team was playing good enough basketball to win. While losses in those games and the others have contributed to much adversity for the team, Roller said that has made them better.
"What's thrown at you in life you just have to adjust and move on," Roller said. "That's what we've been doing all year, and just the last couple games' losing streak, we've got to get past it and move on."
The biggest factor in Saturday's game will be the post play. In their first matchup of the season, the Cardinals dominated down low, holding Huskies Jennifer Youngblood and Joi Scott to only 21 points. However, in their last game the two exploded for 38 points. Ball State also lost the rebounding battle 44-32 after it had won it 36-35 in the first matchup.
"We emphasized (post play) as a coaching staff (the first time), and I don't think we did that as well (the second time)," Roller said. "It's been emphasized this time, so I think we'll be ready."
"We just need more effort out of everybody," senior Jessica Reiter said. "If we go out there with effort like we did in the first game, we'll be fine."
The Cards have always had effort from junior Kate Endress, who leads the team in scoring with an average of 19.2 points per game. Reiter has been the Cards' dominate force on the boards, pulling down a MAC-leading 10.4 per game, while senior Johna Goff also averages double figures in scoring with 13.1.
The game could be the last for five seniors whose goal at the beginning of the season was to win the MAC and while it may appear to be a long shot, Goff feels that goal is still very much attainable.
"I'm going to say it right now. I feel that we're going to be the Cinderella team," Goff said. "We've had trouble all season long, but I think we're going to click come tournament time, and it starts Saturday."
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