Click here to see head coach Michael Lovett and defender Sarah Schumacker talk about the transition from offense to defense (Watch in high quality mode for better performance)
During the middle of the season, Annie Aiello went to coach Michael Lovett and offered to change positions.
Aiello was named First Team All-Mid-American Conference and Third Team All-Great Lakes Region in 2007 as a midfielder for the Ball State University soccer team. However, midway through her senior season she offered to switch to defense for the good of the team.
"Annie came to me, and she said, 'Coach I want to help out the team, and I think I can help better defensively.' That was a very brave move, a very respectful and admirable move from her," Lovett said.
With the move to defense, Aiello joined Sarah Schumacker in the Cardinals' backfield.
Schumacker went through a similar transition to Aiello's in the spring. As a starting forward in 2007 she was tied with Aiello for second on the team with five goals before making the transition to defense this year.
Schumacker, however, made the transition when Lovett was hired as the Cardinals' head coach in the spring.
"It was a little hard at first, going from offense to defense, but so far it's been pretty good," Schumacker said.
With Aiello and Schumacker, Lovett said he saw speed, tenacity and maturity that would help them excel in the Ball State defense.
In the four games that the two started together in the backfield, Ball State is 3-0-1. The Cardinals have also posted two shutouts in that span and have outscored their opponents 11-3.
"Being a senior, you kind of know how it works and what you need to do just on the experience of the past years," Aiello said. "You just have more knowledge of the game to keep the other team from scoring."
Along with the senior leadership they bring to the backfield, Aiello and Schumacker also attributed some of the skills they mastered on the offensive end of the field for helping them make the transition to defense.
Although Aiello scored five goals last year, all of which came on penalty kicks, she said she never considered herself a goal scorer. Instead her ability to possess the ball helped her in the midfield, a quality that she still utilizes on defense, she said.
Schumacker said her time as a forward allows her to get a mental edge when trying to defend other forwards.
"I was a forward, so I kind of know what forwards tend to think," she said. "So being a defender now I kind of can see what type of runs they are going to make."
Experience has also helped the players make the transition.
Schumacker played some defense during high school. At Fairfield High School she was a teammate of Jen Vilkoski, the one returning starter from last year's defense which set multiple Ball State records.
Aiello also played some defense in her time at Ball State.
"I played defense my sophomore year with [former coach] Michelle [Salmon]," Aiello said. "She had moved me back there, and I loved it. I think defense is such a fun position to play."
Last year Ball State's defense allowed a MAC-best 0.63 goals per game en route to the team's second-consecutive regular season MAC championship.
The team lost Angie Heyer and Lindsay Martin to graduation, though, leaving it with a young backfield for the 2008 season.
"At first I didn't think experience was going to matter as much, because I was very confident with our lineup at the beginning of the season," Lovett said. "But as it kind of wore on and we were just being very inconsistent, I knew that one thing the upperclassmen bring you is consistency and a sign of maturity in the back, knowing how to read the game, and that's what those two have done."
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