Ball State University Athletics
Soccer Hosts Bowling Green And Toledo This Weekend
October 01, 2009 | Soccer
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals open the home portion of the 2009 Mid-American Conference schedule this weekend as they host Bowling Green Friday afternoon and Toledo Sunday afternoon at the BSU Soccer Field ... Live stats and audio from 91.3 WCRD FM will be available for both games at www.ballstatesports.com.
MAC Home Openers . . .
Friday's game marks the 11th Mid-American Conference home opener in Ball State history ... The Cardinals have been strong in home conference openers as they have a 7-1-2 record all-time ... Ball State has won the past four home MAC openers and are unbeaten in the past eight contests (7-0-1) ... Last season, the Cardinals opened the MAC home slate with a 4-1 victory over Buffalo at the BSU Soccer Field.
Home Sweet Home . . .
Ball State has benefited from some home field advantage at the BSU Soccer Field as it owns a 59-26-11 (.672) record in program history ... The Cardinals have posted a .500 or better record at home in nine out of their 10 seasons, including a 6-1-1 mark last fall ... Over the past five seasons, the Cardinals have a .755 winning percentage at home as they are 31-7-9 during that span ... Additionally, since the beginning of the 2007 season the Cardinals are 16-2-3 at home and have out-scored opponents by a 40-12 margin.
So far this season, the Cardinals are 2-0-0 at home with victories over SIU-Edwardsville and Lipscomb ... Ball State had a program-record 808 fans come out to enjoy the Cardinals' 4-0 victory over Lipscomb Friday ... The 808 fans sets a new record for attendance at the BSU Soccer Field, surpassing the previous mark of 759 fans September 30, 2007 against Eastern Michigan.
Series History . . .
Friday's game marks the 12th meeting all-time between Ball State and Bowling Green with the Cardinals owning a 6-3-2 record in the series ... The two teams have gone into at least double overtime in their three previous meetings ... Last year, Bowling Green claimed a 1-0 double overtime victory at home as it converted on a corner kick in the 102nd minute of action ... In 2007, the Cardinals picked up a 3-2 double overtime victory over the Falcons in the regular season as former Cardinal Emily Rein scored in the 109th minute ... Ball State is 3-1-2 all-time against Bowling Green at home at the BSU Soccer Field, including a 2-0-1 mark since 2005.
Sunday's game is the 11th meeting all-time between Ball State and Toledo with the Cardinals leading the series by a 7-3-0 margin ... The Cardinals have won five out of the last six meetings between the two teams ... The teams have played in back-to-back overtime games the past two seasons with the cardinals winning in 2007 at home (2-1) and Toledo claiming last season's contest at home (1-0) ... Ball State is 4-1-0 all-time against the Rockets at the BSU Soccer Field, including four straight victories ... All four of the Cardinals' home victories have come by 1-0 margins.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the weekend with a 3-6-0 overall record and a 1-1-0 mark in Mid-American Conference action ... The Cardinals sit in a tie for fourth place in the MAC standings after the first weekend in which they fell at Kent State before defeating Buffalo on the road ... Ball State has scored 12 goals this season with nine different players finding the back of the net ... Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team in scoring with seven points on the strength of three goals and one assist ... Freshman forward Paige Stroinski and junior forward Jacki Eft are tied for second in scoring with four points while Eft leads the team and is second in the MAC with four assists ... Freshman goalkeeper Nicole Wood has played a majority of the minutes in goal and owns a 3-3-0 overall record ... Wood posted her first career shutout Sunday at Buffalo.
Scouting The Falcons . . .
Bowling Green enters the weekend with a 4-6-1 overall record and an 0-1-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play after tying Northern Illinois and falling at Western Michigan last weekend ... The Falcons have scored 12 goals this season as well with three players notching two goals apiece ... Alyssa Zucaro and Megan Amann lead the team in scoring with seven points each while Katelyn Turner is third in scoring with six points ... In goal, Alexa Arsenault has played the majority of time in goal and has a 1.26 goals against average on the year with a 3-5-1 record.
Scouting The Rockets . . .
Toledo enters the weekend with a 5-3-2 overall record and a 1-0-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play as the Rockets sit in third place in the standings ... Toledo tallied a win over Western Michigan and tied Northern Illinois last weekend ... The Rockets will play at Miami Friday afternoon to start the weekend ... Toledo has scored 12 goals prior to this weekend and has allowed only eight goals against ... Two-time MAC Player of the Year Molly Cornwell leads the team in scoring with nine points, including a league-high five assists ... In goal, Vicki Traven owns a 0.62 goals against average which is second in the conference.
Off The Opening Kick . . .
The Cardinals had their best start of the season against SIU-Edwardsville as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 21 minutes ... Freshman Paige Stroinski gave the Cardinals the early lead as she converted a Missy Gordon pass just 1:49 into the game for her first career goal ... The goal is the Cardinals' fastest scored to open a game since September 24, 2006 when former Cardinal Emily Rein scored 51 seconds into the game against Buffalo.
Freshman Scorers . . .
Freshmen forward Paige Stroinski, forward Maggie Brown and defender Brigit Reder have each scored their first career collegiate goals this season ... Reder tallied her first career goal Sunday afternoon as she netted the game-winning goal against Buffalo ... Stroinski and Brown each recorded their first career collegiate goals against SIU-Edwardsville ... The two freshmen are the first Ball State rookies to score their first career goals in the same game since August 26, 2005 ... In that game, former Cardinals Emily Rein and Annie Aiello scored their first career goals in Ball State's 3-0 victory against Indiana State ... In fact, the game marked the first time Ball State has had two freshmen score in the same game since 2005.
Moving Up The Charts . . .
Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team in scoring this season with three goals ... Ridley, a First Team All-Mid-American Conference selection last season, has tallied nine goals in her career ... She moved into sole possession of 10th all-time in BSU scoring history with her nine goals, moving past Vandi Ogden, Katelyn Alexander and Julie Pigozzo ... She is one goal out of eight place and two out of seventh ... Dee Nocero holds the all-time record with 30 career goals between 2001-04.
Fresh Faces In The Crowd . . .
The Cardinals welcome in nine true freshmen to the team this season, marking one of the largest recruiting classes in recent history ... Joining the team this fall are defender Skylar Chew, defender Amanda Dreyfus, goalkeeper Nicole Wood, defender Brigit Reder, midfielder Maggie Brown, defender Coco Cammon, forward Lindsey Dorroh, midfielder Alyssa Ables and forward Paige Stroinski.
The freshmen class will help to replace last season's seven-member senior class.
Road Warriors . . .
Ball State opened the 2009 season with five straight road games for the first time in program history ... The Cardinals have opened with four straight road games on five different occasions, including last season ... Ball State will play just six of its 18 games at home this season ... The Cardinals are in the road portion of the unbalanced Mid-American Conference schedule this season with only four home MAC contests compared to seven road league games.
Did You Know? . . .
The Cardinals have qualified for the Mid-American Conference Tournament eight times in their 10-year history, with all eight appearances coming from 2001-2008.
Looking Ahead . . .
The Cardinals go back on the road next weekend for a pair of Mid-American Conference games as they travel to Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
