The Ball State University field hockey team's road trip to Michigan this past weekend could be classified as one of those weekends to forget.
The Cardinals lost both games this weekend to Michigan University and No. 14 Louisville University, and were out-scored 15-1 in the process.
"This weekend didn't work out the way we wanted it to work out," coach Annette Payne said. "As a coach, though, I think that there are some things which we can take from this weekend and learn from."
In its first game against Michigan, Ball State gave up a season-high 34 shots as the Wolverines scored four times in the first half, en route to a 6-1 win.
Following this, Ball State suffered its worst loss in over two years, as they were shutout by Louisville 9-0.
Offensively, the Cardinals were held without a shot-on-goal for the first 37 minutes of the game. In addition, Ball State was held to a season-low four shots on goal against Louisville, and were shut out for the first time this season.
One bright spot for the Cardinals this weekend was the play of freshman goalie Caroline Lehman.
Despite allowing 15 goals in the two games, Lehman made 16 saves this weekend and set a career-high for most saves in a game with 12 against Michigan. Lehman is now second among all Mid-American Conference goaltenders in saves per game.
"We set goals as a team and we accomplished some of those goals, even though it was at times difficult to look at the scoreboard," Payne said. "After the game we talked about the goals which we had for this game, and I think individually we were able to accomplish about 90 percent of those individual goals."
With these two losses, the Cardinals' record for the season drops to 1-6, as Ball State has now been out-scored 30-11 in its first seven games.
In addition, Ball State has now lost 10 of its last 11 road games and 13 of its last 15 non-conference games dating back to last season.
For Payne, these statistics become completely irrelevant this weekend as the Cardinals open MAC play with games against Ohio University on Friday and Kent State University on Saturday.
"I don't think it will be that difficult for us to regroup after this weekend, and hopefully these types of games will get us ready for MAC play," Payne said. "The team knows that these games do matter, but these games are not going to get us to a conference championship."
The Cardinals enter MAC play tied with Kent State and Missouri State University for the fewest amount of non-conference wins this season.
Although wins have been few and far between this year for the Cardinals, there is a sense of optimism as they are second in both goals scored and points among all MAC teams.
"We have the right outlook and we have to have two or three good days of practice," Payne said. "We just have to be fully committed, come after these guys and be ready for our game against OU."
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