The chances to make the Mid-American Conference Tournament grew slimmer for the Ball State University soccer team following its 2-1 home loss to the last-place Northern Illinois University on Friday afternoon.
The Cardinals went into the match with a 3-1 record at home this season, but also came into the match on a five-game losing streak.
Northern Illinois struck first in the sixth minute of play when forward Lisa Maier got past the Ball State defense and put in a shot on the far post. The Huskies increased their lead to 2-0 in the 21st minute when a loose ball in the 18-yard box was put in by forward Kelsey Passaglia.
Freshman goalkeeper Nicole Wood suffered an injury in the 33rd minute of the match. From a set piece, Wood had her legs taken out from underneath while in mid-air to catch the ball and came down hard on her arm. During halftime, Wood was taken to the Ball Memorial Hospital for examinations.
Lovett said she injured her elbow but did not know if she would return for the rest of the season.
"We played very flat in the first half and got ourselves in a hole early," coach Michael Lovett said. "The second half we played inspired when Nicole got hurt. I told them she had our backs through out the season and if we didn't play strong in the second half it would be slapping her in the face."
In the second half, the rain and wind influenced the match heavily. The field had standing water in numerous spots from the rain on Thursday night and into Friday morning. When the rain started, the puddles became bigger and proved to be hard for any of the Ball State or Northern Illinois players to dribble in.
With the wind at their backs, the Cardinals got on the board in the 67th minute of the match when freshman forward Paige Stroinski took a shot on goal from 15 yards out and found the back of the net.
Ball State could not get an equalizing goal to force overtime. Lovett said he thinks the weather had a huge affect on how the game turned out.
"The weather held both teams back [Friday]. The field is absolutely trashed from the match," Lovett said. "The maintenance staff was out here since this morning trying to get the water off the field and they did a great job getting the field to where we could play on it."
Ball State play its final home match of the season on Sunday afternoon against Western Michigan University. The match will be senior day for Megan Ridley and Amy Cleeter.
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