After losing a shot at hosting next week's quarterfinal match-uplast weekend by tying Wright State, 1-1 on Friday, and playingAkron to a scoreless draw on Sunday, the Ball State soccer teamlooks to finish strong in its last regular season game todayagainst Illinois State.
Entering last weekend, the Cardinals found themselves in thirdplace in the Mid-American Conference, but with the two ties, willfinish in either fifth or sixth place. Their final standing willdepend on the outcome of the Miami-Eastern Michigan game, beingplayed tomorrow.
Coach Ron Rainey said the team wasn't disappointed by its finishin the MAC season, saying their goals heading into the season wereto advance to the MAC tournament, then to the NCAA tournament. Healso said the team has a good comfort level on the road, as evidentby its 5-1-2 away record.
"We've only lost two games so far (overall), so we're prettyexcited about what we've done through the season," he said.
Although the match-up with Illinois State has no bearings ontheir MAC standings, Rainey won't rest any players, saying fourdays rest will be plenty of time to recover heading into thetournament.
However, Ball State (10-2-6 overall, 5-2-5 MAC) might be withoutstar forward Dee Nocero today, who left the Wright State game inthe second half with continued back problems, and sat out the Akrongame. She leads the team in points with 16, and goals with six.According to Rainey, her availability will be a game-timedecision.
"The people that will be out on the field will be going hard.Our bodies will be 100-percent heading into that Tuesday's game,"he said.
Illinois State comes off two wins last week against NorthernIowa, 2-1 on Thursday, and Northwestern, also 2-1, on Sunday.Against Northern Iowa, the Redbirds dominated offensively byoutshooting the Panthers, 27-4.
ISU has been equally dangerous in each half this season, scoring12 goals in each period. The Redbirds are led by Michelle Brumbaughwith 11 points and three goals, and is tied for the team lead inassists with five. Andrew Shaw has started every game in net, andhas a 0.92 goals against average, and .810 saves percentage.
Rainey said when the team has scoring opportunities, attackersmust position their bodies toward the goal to strike the balltechnically well and improve their scoring chances.
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