After failing to prove itself in the regular season, the Ball State University soccer team is excited for its second chance in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
The Cardinals (9-9-1, 5-5-1 MAC) earned the chance to compete in the postseason with their 1-0 win against Miami University (6-11-1, 5-6 MAC) in the regular season finale Thursday at the Ball State Soccer Field. With a little more than 32 minutes remaining in the second half, senior Emily Rein gave Ball State the lead as she headed in a goal.
"I don't care who scores," Rein said. "I just wanted to win because to me that was potentially my last game, and we knew that going in."
With the win, Ball State secured the No. 7 seed in the conference tournament. The Cardinals will play the No. 2 seed, Central Michigan University (11-4-3, 6-2-3 MAC), at 2 p.m. Sunday at Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Ball State began conference play this year with a 3-0 loss to Central Michigan on Sept. 26, which was its worst loss of the season.
Prior to finding out who the Cardinals would play in the tournament, coach Michael Lovett said his team would love to play the Chippewas again.
"That was one of our worst performances of the year," he said. "We came out that day just not ready to play soccer, not ready for the MAC competition and knowing how we played 48 hours later, knowing how we played the next few games after that, we welcome the opportunity to play Central Michigan."
After the loss to Central Michigan, the Cardinals won their next three games by three goals each. However, they finished out the season with a 2-4-1 record in the final six games for a 5-5-1 record in conference play.
Entering this year's tournament as a low seed, Rein said, could be an opportunity to turn the tables on the rest of the MAC.
"We've always kind of had that target on our back," she said. "Teams have expected us to be good, and I think maybe we'll be a little bit of a dark horse this year. I think that would be fun."
In nine of the 11 years of MAC women's soccer, the team that won the tournament title was one of the top four seeds. There is precedent of a low team winning the tournament; however, as the eighth-seeded Bowling Green State University won the MAC tournament in 2004.
Lovett said he is confident the Cardinals, which won the 2006 and 2007 regular season MAC championships, are still one of the best teams in the conference.
"If we bring our 'A' game and our best performance each half of the next however many games we're allowed to play, I don't think there is any team in this conference we can't compete with, we can't beat," he said.
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