SOCCER: Cardinals get sixth seed in MAC Tournament

Loss to Toledo on Thursday, Ball State draws Western Michigan

Freshman Jasmine Moses celebrates with friends after scoring a goal late in the game against Marshall. DN PHOTO SHAE GIST
Freshman Jasmine Moses celebrates with friends after scoring a goal late in the game against Marshall. DN PHOTO SHAE GIST

With the aggressiveness and size of back line players like junior defenders Brigit Reder and Skylar Chew, Ball State is usually the team taking advantage of set pieces.

That wasn't the case Thursday.

Despite getting out shot in the game 9-8, Toledo capped off its second consecutive regular season Mid-American Conference Championship with a 2-0 win against Ball State.

Ball State coach Craig Roberts said both goals resulted from his team losingt sight of its opponents around the box.

"I thought we took the game to them and did very well," Roberts said. "But we let down on basically two corners and they took advantage of those opportunities. That's something we need to address for hopefully the rematch in the future."

In the 16th minute, Danielle Case took advantage of the restart and scored her second goal of the season off an assist from Natalia Gaitan. Toledo scored again in the 55th minute off a corner kick. The ball was flicked by Kristen Mattei to teammate Rachel MacLeod who tallied her seventh goal of the season.

With the loss, Ball State drew the sixth seed in the MAC Tournament and will play at Western Michigan on Sunday. Game time is set for 1 p.m.

After not competing in the tournament last season, Roberts said he and his team are extremely excited and confident about the opportunity.

"Out of any of the team's [in the top four] that we could play, I would choose Western Michigan," Roberts said.

Ball State heads into tournament play the losers of four straight games. Despite the recent struggles Roberts is optimistic the team is on the right track.

"One of the areas you can't really coach on that the team must do its duty on is matching up on the set pieces," Roberts said. "Whether it was inexperience or what have you, I just didn't feel like we arrived in those areas. If we can solidify that and continue to play the way we've been playing, we'll start to get productive results in the most vital time in the season."


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