Annette Payne is sure there are a few things she can count on from her team.
"We always have a team that believes in working hard, believes in showing up ready to play and take on challenges," Payne said.
Those challenges will start early for the Cardinals, who will open their season with four games on the road before returning home to play Big Ten-power Michigan. After starting last year 1-6, Payne is hopeful the team will be able to learn from that experience and start the year well.
"We need to have the right outlook about it, which is to take it one game at a time and control what we can control," Payne said. "How hard we work, how well we prepare and to have the right mindset as we go about training."
While their early season schedule will be difficult, Payne said, the team embraces difficult competition.
"We have to prepare one game at a time," Payne said. "We look at it as a schedule of opportunity."
Payne said junior forward Brooke MacGillivary, who led the team in goals and points last year, would be key to her team's success. The all-MAC selection accounted for half the team's goals, with 15 in 18 games. Now an upperclassman, MacGillivary will be counted on for more than just offense.
"I look for her to challenge herself and the team," Payne said. "Brooke is a goal scorer. I look for those goals to increase."
Ball State's anchor on defense will be junior goalkeeper Tiffany Shifflett, who played every minute of the 2007 season. Shifflett recorded a .760 save percentage - third-best of seven teams in the MAC - and notched a shutout at home against MAC rival Missouri State.
Now one of the veterans of the team, Shifflett said she looks forward to being a leader.
"I want to be a good role model for the girls coming in," Shifflett said. "I'll go to the field if anyone wants extra help because I can always use extra practice."
The Cardinals' schedule features home games against Michigan and Indiana. The team will also have the typically difficult MAC slate, which includes defending champion Ohio, building to the MAC tournament hosted by Kent State Nov. 6-8.
If the team is to improve on its 5-13 record and first-round loss in the MAC tournament, new players will have to fill the holes left from graduation, Shifflett said. The Cardinals lost two all-MAC players in Lauren Cruz and Nicole Humphreys.
"You have to step in and do your job," Shifflett said. "We don't have time to be timid."
Any of the less experienced players are good enough to excel this year for Ball State, Payne said. -á-á-á-á-á-á-á-á-á-á-á
"A lot of players will be great if given the opportunity," Payne said. "Watch every single one of them because they will all have the opportunity to shine."
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